Evermore
by Lemonfresh
Summary: Completely revised, hopefully removing all the annoying little errors!rnrnRaven's powers are growing, and her behavior is erratic, but will Starfire come to understand what's causing all of this before it's too late?
1. Lenore

**"Evermore"**

A Fanfiction by Lemonfresh

Disclaimer: This story is about homosexual love, that of the yuri/femmeslash variety, so many people might find its content objectionable, especially the graphic description of sexual relations between the two that will come in the epilogue. Also, I do not own the rights to Teen Titans or any of its characters, and do not claim to be using any of these things with the consent or approval of anyone who does own their rights.

Author's Notes: First of all, I'm warning everyone right here and right now: I am really not in the mood to deal with homophobic idiots considering what is happening in my country right now, so any review posted for this story which is nothing more than gay bashing idiocy will be deleted. If constructive criticism of some kind is included in the review, it will be allowed to stay. Similarly, any reviews that are nothing more than you saying that I'm wrong and it's actually (insert couple here) that are together and not StarfirexRaven will be deleted as well. I am aware that this couple has no factual support in the show, that's why I'm writing a fic that diverges from the series where they get together. So, please, leave coupling arguing out of this as well. What I would like is to keep those kind of things out of the reviews and just stick to actual rating of my fic's worth as a story. Feel free to also inform me of any mistakes I have made about the series itself in your review as well. Lastly, I hope you all enjoy reading this, it is my gift to everyone with an open mind and heart.

**Chapter 1: Lenore**

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, there worked a group of heroes in a city, fighting for the good of the people.

"You're going down, Mammoth!" Robin; the martial arts trained one-man army, a dedicated and driven boy who thought defending the people from evil was as much his right as his duty; shouted at the huge Hive Agent, throwing several disks that exploded on contact with the gargantuan's body just to make sure his point was understood loud and clear. With a sound like the roar of a wounded bear, Mammoth came barreling out of the smoke completely unharmed, shoulder lowered for what would be a devastating tackle. That is, if he hadn't been met by a charging rhinoceros before he could even reach Robin, the impact of the two musclebound beasts causing a huge "SNAP" to echo through the air, sending both of them flying backwards. A moment after it landed, the huge, green rhino shifted and changed to become a small, green-skinned boy, eyes spinning in little swirls within their sockets.

"Did someone get the number of that bus I just hit . . . ?" Beast Boy; the comedic relief of the group, had the power to transform into almost any animal in existence at only a moment's notice, as well as the ability to crack a bad joke at the most inopportunemoment possible;asked, stumbling about for a few seconds before he shook his head and regained his senses. Mammoth, growling angrily as he climbed back to his feet out of the rubble of what had been a telephone booth, glared darkly at Beast Boy, and then gave a huge bellow and brought both of his arms back over his head in a hammer hold. Before he could bring them back down in a blow to the ground that would probably have caused Beast Boy great pain, the pavement around him exploded in burning, green plasma bolts, the asphalt beneath his feat boiling under the assault.

High above the smoldering crater that lay where Mammoth had been standing, Starfire; the Tamaranian super girlwith a number of unusual powers, along with her own unique awkwardness and naiveté; cried out in glee at what had to have been a decisive strike against the genetically engineered bruiser. Her curiously emerald and then lime green eyes grew quite large, though, when she heard a grunt of incredible effort, followed by the crunching of pavement beneath the pressure exerted by impossibly strong arms. The smoke cleared from around Mammoth as he hurled a huge piece of asphalt and the supporting concrete straight for Star, laughing maliciously as the girl could only scream and pull her body in close to hopefully ward off a little damage due to her decreased surface area. The bone crushing blow that Starfire morbidly anticipated never struck her, stopped just before it would have impacted with the alien girl by the telekinetic magic of the fourth Teen Titan.

Raventhe mysterious cloaked sorceress of the group, quiet and serene but cold and aloof at the same time, an enigma if there ever had been one; glowed with the black energies of her magic, gestured at Mammoth before calling out her often used magical phrase,

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" This sent the huge mass of solid rock flying right back at the wild warrior, the force of Raven's emotions propelling it forward. He caught it in his hands, just barely managing to halt its momentum and keep it from crushing him. With a growl, the Hive agent dug his heels in and started to push against Raven's control on the boulder, trying to press it back and give himself some breathing room. But there was still yet more power burning in Raven's now absolutely black eyes, and with another two quick gestures, Mammoth found his balance destroyed as the pavement itself rolled up in a wave beneath him, and then snapped up from the normal road just a few feet back from him. The road came crashing down on the top of his headwith the force of a falling building. The monstrous humanoid's eyes rolled back in his head as he stumbled backward, his impermeable defense against the possessed boulder of pavement and concrete faltering with his consciousness.

When the whole of the giant rock chunk blew apart, Mammoth was a little glad for not having to hold against its force anymore, despite the cuts and burns he suffered due to the explosion. But he wasn't as happy when a steel-plated fist came flying through the cloud of smoke the mass had left in its wake. With another grunt of pain, Mammoth toppled over backwards, unconscious, and out of the airborne cloud of carbon stepped Cyborg; the super-cybernetically enhanced powerhouse of the Titans, he had a body which was virtually a walking toolbox, and was also the mechanic and technology man of the group; smiling triumphantly.

"Booyah!" He yelled out, firmly planting one foot on Mammoth's barely-breathing chest, signaling his victory.

"Don't be so cocky, Cyborg, if it hadn't been for Raven, Mammoth would have laid you out before you ever could have gotten off that punch." Robin reminded Cyborg in a somewhat chastising manner as he came up behind the tall humanoid, the other Titans in tow.

"That was awesome!" Beast Boy cried with his usual energy and enthusiasm as he looked to Raven. "How did you do that thing with the powers and the road and the . . . the WHAMMO!" Raven only answered his question with a cold glare, clenching one of her hands tightly beneath the folds of her blue cloak. Starfire, almost unconsciously sensing the beginning of the celebration's death in Beast Boy's interaction with Raven, quickly interjected.

"Yes, that was wonderful, Raven, and I am sure that you saved me from the agonizing pain of many broken bones, so I must thank you." Starfire hugged Raven, smiling, as she finished speaking, but it only lasted for a few moments before the purple-haired girl made a small sound of annoyance, and slipped out of the embrace. As soon as she was out of the hug, Mammoth's body became engulfed in the black energies of Raven's telekinetic powers, and lifted slowly into the air.

"Let's just get him to the authorities and get back to the tower, alright?" There was a note of both annoyance and anger in Raven's voice then, but the other Titan's mostly dismissed it as one of the girl's "moods." But the faint blush that colored her ashen cheeks as she walked in the direction of the nearest police station ahead of all the other Titans showed that there was more to the events than just the superficial.

In a dazzlingly bright flash of light, the vehicle that had been struck exploded, sending debris flying outward in all directions, ultimately leaving nothing behind but a scorch mark on the road. With a triumphant cry, Beast Boy's hover vehicle roared past the remains of Cyborg's destroyed car, the front end of the shape-shifter's still smoking from the missile he'd fired.

"Oh, it's on now, you little green cheat!" Cyborg shouted at the Titan beside him, his human eye slanted to an angry set, but Beast Boy seemed to care little, leaning so far forward that his nose was almost touching the screen. Just as he was about to let forth yet another cry as his car crossed the finish line, a small red and yellow motorcycle shot past his car and crossed it first, winning the race. Beast Boy's jaw nearly did hit the floor as he stared in disbelief at the screen.

"What?! How could I have lost?!" He looked over to the third Titan seated at the game, Robin, who just happened to wear a rather smug and self-satisfied smile.

"You really need to remember that I'm playing this too, Beast Boy, and that changes the whole game." The green-boy's features grew rather dark at Robin's words and without so much as looking away from the other Titan, he said,

"I want a rematch." He nearly toppled over onto the floor from the hearty "pat" on the back that Cyborg gave him, and then Beast Boy's eyes grew rather wide as he realized what he'd just gotten himself into.

"Double team!" Both Cyborg and Robin shouted the phrase at the same time, and Beast Boy let his posture slump in defeat.

"No fair, guys . . ." With a sigh, Raven, who was seated about ten feet away from the three gaming Titans, looked away from the spectacle and back to the rather large, tome-like book opened before her, though it looked like she was battling her urge to just get up and go to her room more than actually reading it. Normally she wouldn't have tried to resist the urge at all, but due to present circumstances, she didn't really have a choice. With a growl of annoyance, the cloaked-girl slammed the book shut and looked over to the kitchen, which was situated just a little ways back from the round couch on which she sat, back turned to the media center and the boys. Flitting about its expanse like a humming bird that had drunk just a _bit_ too much nectar was Starfire, making good on her promise to cook a Tamaranian feast for Raven, somehow managing to handle at least four separate cooking-dishes without even breaking a sweat. She was even smiling widely and humming to herself as she did it, looking like she was happy just to be doing it for Raven.

After heaving a soft sigh and shaking her head for a moment, Raven opened her book back up again, intent on actually managing to read a little bit of the story that night. When she found herself trying to read through a platter stacked with steaming; and in some cases, wriggling; food, Raven knew that Starfire was finished making the meal.

"That looks . . . appetizing." She muttered quietly, one eyebrow raised incredulously, but Star seemed unfazed by Raven's unenthusiastic manner, only continuing to smile.

"This is a traditional Tamaranian feast of friendship and thanks, it includes all of the foods of plenty that have been eaten on my planet for millennia." She pointed first to the small, slug-like creatures; greenish in general coloration, but also bearing a number of brown spots across their bodies, and a film of slimy yellow, almost pus-like substance; that had been piled in a pyramid-like configuration on one corner of the platter. "Those are Lorzion Nemnar worms, boiled to seal in their spicy flavor." Next, she indicated the curious, slurry-looking bowl of red goo. "That is a bowl of Zeran Slourghar soup, spiced with your Earth 'mustard' and Telzanian sauce." Her finger shifted again, now directed toward several purple, speckled beetle creatures arranged on their backs as if they had just died. "Those are Glorka young steamed to- . . ." Raven chose that point to interrupt the alien girl, the name of the last meal item ringing a bell in her memory.

"Didn't you have a musical instrument with that name too?" Starfire blinked once at the question, but then smiled.

"You mean the Glorka Pipes." She asserted, somehow producing the item in question out of thin air so that she could show Raven. "They bear the same name because the Glorka pipes were originally made from the major intestinal track of the adult Glorka beetles." She held the pipes out for Raven to feel. "They are now made of a synthetic material, because it is more sanitary and durable." Yet again, Raven raised that one eyebrow in question, looking to the inch-long beetles on the platter.

"But those are- . . ." Now it was Starfire's turn to interrupt.

"The adult Glorka beetles grow quite large." Raven looked at Star's utterly unperturbed face for a few more seconds, and then heaved a small sigh, giving up on actually comprehending the alien girl's unusual ways. In a moment, the pipes were returned to whatever weird, extra-dimensional pocket they were pulled from, and Starfire was pointing to the last dish on the platter, five round discs of meat that looked remarkably similar to hamburger patties. "And these are Mirainian Klipticor ma- . . ." Star's description was cut off, not by Raven speaking up this time, but by the fact that one of the indicated patties had suddenly sprouted wings and insectile legs and was currently flying across the room. "Ah!" She screamed, firing off one starbolt which neatly; or rather, explosively' destroyed the escaping food. The boys, too caught up in their proverbial contest of, "who has the bigger penis," did not notice the not-so-well-cooked creature's destruction, and continued to play their game. On the other hand, Raven was painfully aware of the occurrence, and winced when Starfire, her back turned to Raven, let her shoulders slump into a defeated posture.

"I have failed to keep my promise of making you a feast of friendship and thanks, Raven." She looked very sad, even with her back turned to the other girl, and she was also horribly still, considering Starfire's normal inability to sit still and stay in one place. "I am sorry . . ." Everything was still, the boys and their raucous competition forgotten, until Raven reached a hand out to the platter, snatched up a Glorka beetle, and popped it into her mouth, chewing it as loudly as she could without actually opening her mouth. The sound made Star's head jerk up, and slowly she turned about to look at Raven, who then promptly swallowed the small repast.

"I think your feat is just fine besides those, Starfire." She gestured to the remaining four patties, by then surrounded by the dark glow of Raven's power, and they slowly lifted into the air, lazily making their way across the room to the garbage disposal in the kitchen. "And that doesn't mean we can't just enjoy the rest of the feast without them." She let a small smile tug up the corners of her lips, watching for Starfire's reaction. It was as if someone had flipped on a light switch and sent a thousand volts of pure energy right into Star, the way her eyes lit up and her smile beamed forth at Raven's words.

"Oh, Raven!" She cried, fairly hovering off the ground then, due to how happy she was. Raven's smile became more substantial, and a single thought flitted through her mind. 'I made her happy . . .' The walls trembled ever so slightly, causing a pair of monitors on them to short out, and the four "bugburgers" hanging over the garbage disposal crushed into a pulpy mass of meat that slipped easily into the machine, but no one really seemed to notice. "Raven, are you going to start eating again?" Star asked curiously, peering at Raven's faraway eyes, but the question snapped the dark-haired girl's gaze back to the present.

"I am, but not without you to help." Starfire shook her head.

"I could never do that, this is your feast, Raven." Raven smiled again, but raised a hand to point a single finger at the red-haired Tamaranian girl.

"But you said it was a feast of friendship, and now I want to share it with a friend." Starfire giggled, blushing as she raised her hands, palms outward in a gesture she'd learned from Robin.

"I concede, you have won, friend." She smiled even wider for having said the word to Raven, the emerald of her eyes sparkling like the true stone. "I will share the meal with you."

The food was gone in not too long, and Raven had not lied, it was quite well prepared, and very good to eat. They had eaten it mostly in silence, though it was not the cold, nervous silence of not having anything to say when things needed to be said. Rather, it was the warm, comfortable silence of not needing to say anything at all to one another. Afterwards, Raven had gone to the kitchen to put a kettle of water on the stove to boil, and while she did that, Starfire occupied herself by inquisitively examining the gargantuan tome Raven had left behind on the couch, the one she had been attempting to read before Star had brought over her feast. It was quite large in just plain size, being not only very tall and wide, but thick as well, containing easily a few thousand pages, by Star's reckoning. It was bound in surprisingly soft and supple leather, and despite being a little bit dusty from disuse, it appeared to be in very good condition for its age. The title of the volume, which had once probably been boldly emblazoned on the cover, was worn away, leaving Starfire clueless as to the contents of the book.

Not one to lose interest easily or to give up, she flipped the book open to one of the pages a little ways into it. She came face to face with a simple title, written in flowing, archaic script. "Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf," and the name left Starfire staring in puzzlement, for even she knew that to be the title of a child's fairy tale, rather than a collection of dark poetry or a novel.

"It's fairy tales, a collection of almost every traditional one in existence." Raven explained, having finished preparing the tea while Starfire had been engrossed in her investigation. Star looked back at the other girl, not really surprised by the girl's sudden reappearance at her back.

"But, these are stories for children, why are you reading them, Raven?" Star tilted her head a little to the side as she looked at the cloaked girl, awaiting the answer to her question. Raven smiled, having been expecting that question since she had left the book behind on the couch while she made them tea.

"Because I enjoy fairy tales, Starfire." She handed the Tamaranian her cup of tea, a relaxing herbal variety that was faintly flavored with honey, and took a seat across from her, the book laying between them on the couch. "They're very simple and innocent, they don't have the same pretension and smug self-importance that other kinds of stories do, and no matter how bad things look during the rising action and climax, they always have a happy ending." Starfire took a sip of her tea and smiled at Raven.

"I am glad that you can enjoy simple things, I had thought that you would believe your self to be above children's amusements, Raven." The dark-haired magus paused before retorting, recognition of something flashing through her eyes for a moment.

"No, Starfire, I've never thought that, simple things are good because they're easy to understand, and because they fit with many different ideas." She looked away from Star just a little, her features ever so slightly drawn. "Most of the time, at least . . ." The Tamaranian cocked her head to the side again, peering at Raven curiously.

"Is something wrong, Raven?" The question seemed to go unheard by Raven, but the other girl did snap out of her sudden anxiety when Cyborg's shout of triumph rang forth.

"Booyah!" He had jumped to his feet; strangely causing a rather sharp crack for how padded the floor of the media center was; with Beast Boy sulking beside him and Robin looking ever so slightly annoyed, but he returned to his sitting posture a moment later to continue the game, and Star looked back to Raven, smiling as she always did at the foolishness of the boy's machismo. Curiously, Raven's tea cup was gone from her hands when Star laid eyes on her again, and worse she was smiling again. Normally that would have been a good thing, but the smile rang false in Star's eyes, a smile that was not really felt by the ashen-skinned girl, and that worried Starfire.

"No, everything is fine. I'm just a little tired." Raven stood up from the couch, heading rather swiftly toward the stairs to the hall which ultimately lead to her room. Starfire blinked, surprised by Raven's sudden retreat, but called out to her before she could escape the room.

"Raven?" The cloaked-girl, her whole body hidden by that very object, stopped in the middle of her walk up the stairs, not turning to look at Starfire before answering.

"Yes, Starfire?"

"What about your book?" The red-haired girl asked, holding up the item in question, but Raven still did not turn about to look.

"You can have it, I've already read it a hundred times, and I think you'll like it." Starfire looked down for a moment, blushing a little.

"Thank you, Raven, but . . ." She looked back up to the steps and stopped speaking when she realized that Raven had vanished into the shadows of the hallway as soon as she had looked down. Starfire lowered her gaze again, pulling the nameless fairy tale collection in against her chest with one hand, while the other set itself on the couch to her side to help her stand. She was surprised when she felt wetness under just the tips of her fingers, and looked over to find a small, wet spot on the couch, the area it encompassed littered with the shards of Raven's mysteriously shattered cup. "Raven . . . ?" Starfire whispered quietly, unsure of what exactly was going on, and more than just a little worried.


	2. A Kingdom of Cards

**Chapter 2: A Kingdom of Cards**

The sun was a brilliant orange half-circle on the horizon the next morning, washing the whole sky and even the sea in the warm ambience of perfectly blended red and yellow color. From her position, floating at the edge of the roof of Titan's Tower, Raven would have had the perfect view of that sun ride, if she had been paying attention to it. Though she was in the posture for it, Raven was not missing the sun rise due to meditation, she was instead missing it in favor of watching her teammates train far below her. Robin was running the obstacle course at the moment, the first of the four who would do so. Unable to really see them from her height, Raven's mind filled in what her eyes could not make out. He was of average height, with a very athletic build, which afforded him a good balance of speed and strength, a trait he made good use of while running a gauntlet of laser-launching autoguns, keeping one step ahead of each blast while smashing the previous guns with his bo staff. As the costumes of the team went, his was probably the most flashy, done up in bright reds, greens, and yellows that somehow managed to match up anyway. A red torso piece that had Robin's "R" emblem on the left breast and three yellow clasps running down the center of the chest, loose, short green sleeves, green tights that lead into heavy, boot-like shoes with steel toes and soles made up the bulk of the costume. Included was his bright yellow utility belt around his waist, short cape that was yellow on the underside and trim, and black on the top, and lastly was the simple, rather ineffective mask, formed just around his eyes.

Little of his costume was just for show, though, as Robin demonstrated when he used the cape to deflect an unexpected last blast, and then produced a number of small disks from his utility belt, which were thrown at the offending last cannon array with rather explosive results upon impact. He smiled and reproduced his collapsible staff from that same belt before continuing on, his short, spiked black hair swaying in the wind just a little as he ran on, dodging explosion, obstacle, and pit traps left and right. When it came down to the final robot between him and the finish, Robin took the direct approach, as he often did. A leap high, high into the air while running full speed, and a spin into an overhead strike with his staff left the robot as little more than scrap metal, and ended his exercise. Raven envied Robin, and for much more than just his combat skills, something she had to an extent, but lacked the time to truly develop, as he had.

There was no time to consider that subject, though, as Cyborg was stepping up to the plate then. Quite tall and built like a tank even before his cybernetic enhancement, Cyborg was a powerhouse of human and mechanical might, already smashing his way through half of the obstacles he encountered even just after the start of the course. Laser cannons were rendered useless by his sheer endurance, and then shortly thereafter by a crushing blow from his mechanical fist. Cyborg's "costume" was less that and more his actual body, constructed hardy and heavy with the sum of his parts forming something like armor, which bore a curious symmetry, with the more vital areas of his body completely covered in armored metal, like his torso. His combat effectiveness was also not limited to only smashing foes too stupid to get out of his way, as he demonstrated when the parts of his right hand and forearm shifted and rearranged to form his trademark sonic blaster, which was then promptly used to destroy a swarm of insectile robots, an addition to the training program after the Killer Moth fiasco. Even more so, the young African-American cyborg's abilities included a great aptitude for the creation, repair, and modification of both mechanical and technological systems, as he had demonstrated by not only constructing a submarine for a deep sea mission, but by then effectively modifying it for interstellar travel. Another five drones fell before the unstoppable juggernaut that was Cyborg, and then the finish line was in sight.

His nearly blind charge for the checkered line almost cost him dearly when a pit suddenly opened up in the earth before him, but Cy didn't even hesitate to run on. At the very edge of the immensely long pit, he leapt, and sailed through the air like some mythical creature of legendary significance, and then landed safely at the other end, though just barely. Raven knew the other Titans were cheering for him then, but naturally she couldn't hear them from so high up, so she contented herself with contemplation. She had found middle ground with the technological terror not long ago, after the incident that followed the creation of his car, and this had given her a new measure of respect for the young humanoid.

But, once again, there was little time for thoughts on that subject, as Beast Boy was already up to go next. As soon as the starter rang, the short, averagely built hero was off like a shot; or, more accurately, a cheetah; effortlessly shooting through the first few lines of obstacles and defenses before any could even activate. Beast Boy required a bit more imagination to envision, as he was never actually in his normal form the whole time he zipped back and forth across the training field, sometimes smashing through obstacles as one huge beast or another, and other times bypassing them completely by scampering by as a small, harmless creature. Raven found the mercurial nature of Beast Boy himself rather amusing, as it existed not only in his personality but in the way that he could never seem to stay in one body for long. The antitheses of calm and stable Raven, and therefore a curiosity for her, but little more. Regardless, she knew quite well what Beast Boy looked like, just as she knew the same information about the rest of the Titans. In his normal form, Beast Boy wore a full-body suit, leaving all of his form covered except for his head, with the center of his mass colored purple and suggesting the shapes of a pullover armless shirt and shorts at the areas where the black sections that filled out the rest of the suit met the purple. The outfit was completed by a pair of sneaker-like shoes in grey, heavy grey gloves, and an utterly useless utility belt which Raven was sure Beast Boy used for nothing more than storing snacks.

Another four security bots fell beneath the crushing fists of a giant green gorilla, and then Beast-Boy himself was charging for the finish line, knowing from previous exercises that there was nothing left to throw at him by that point. His short cut, bluish green hair was framed by a pair of pointed ears that sat at either side of his skull, and this all served to accentuate the enjoyment which was radiating out from the set of the shape-changer's small, playful eyes and bushy eyebrows. Of course, all of that vanished when he went tumbling head-first into a carefully hidden pit, dug right before the finish line. Raven knew Robin would chastise Beast Boy about always being on guard and never believing everything was over until the villain was in handcuffs, once he fished the green-skinned boy from the hole, and she smiled a little, because those were exactly the antics she expected from the foolish changeling.

Her attention was drawn away from the spectacle, though, when she noticed the fourth and final Titan who would run the gauntlet that day preparing to do so. Starfire was of a very lithe build, standing just short of average height, though that was a little hard to tell as she floated just a little bit off the ground, wringing her hands in anxious anticipation. Unsurprisingly, considering her alien heritage, Star's skin was not quite a normal human pigment, being a decidedly orange color to the eyes of those who looked closely. This was built upon by Starfire's undoubtedly alien eyes, for though they had utterly normal pupils, and only slightly unusual cornea in how dark of an emerald color they were, what would normally have been white of the rest of her eyes was instead a soft lime green color, overall creating an interesting contrast with the girl's orange skin and very dark red hair. Her hair was immensely long, hanging down all the way to her waist in a waterfall of crimson, with only a short brow separated at the middle and twin, long hanging before her ears really showing the silky mass on her head. It was very simply, but that was the essence of Starfire, simplicity and innocence, and so the lack of style was in and of itself more attractive than any fancy style could ever be. Just beneath the parted brow of her hair, and a little above where eyebrows would have existed on the alien girl's forehead were two, oval dots, the same color as Starfire's hair, and beneath them a distance down, below her rounded eyes, was the faint ridge of cartilage that was her nose, and even further down from there lay her mouth, little more than a line on her face with the differential coloring of make-up, but not without merits regardless. Her jaw line came down from her small, rounded ears to form a slightly curved "V," which almost seemed to act as an arrow that led the eyes down to her thin, bird-like neck, which drifted gracefully down from its position beneath her chin into her shoulders.

The musculature and bone structure of her collarbone were sadly hidden from view by the extremely extended metallic choker that Starfire wore, beginning with a collar that extended up half the length of the alien girl's neck, and flowing down from there to straddle the midpoint to her breasts at the lowest, and the edges of her shoulders at the farthest, lastly being set with a dark green gem over what would be the hollow of her throat. That was then attached to the purple substance that Star's top was formed of, which wrapped about the whole of her remaining torso and slightly smallish breasts, though it terminated just above the edge of her ribcage, leaving the skin below all the way to her skirt, which sat low on her hips, exposed. Each forearm bore one glove, which hugged the length of each thin, but somehow still very substantial, half-limb from elbow to wrist, with a further overhang set with the same type of gem as the choker running up to cover the top of each hand, seeming to emphasize the Tamaranian's long, elegant fingers. Curiously, as if in defiance of the symmetry that was the rest of her outfit, Starfire's right bicep bore a band of the same strange, metallic fabric as much of the rest of her outfit was of, which was not mirrored on the opposite arm. From below her well-attired torso, a gentle curve swelled in from each side of her waist to touch one another, but fell quite short of doing so, giving the girl something of an hourglass-like figure, but not to the point of absurdity and diminished appearance. From there, the belt of the outfit's skirt emerged, once again of the same material as the choker and gloves, but unadorned by a jewel as the others were, and falling from that was a short skirt of the purple material of the outfit's top. Lastly came Starfire's long, graceful legs, mostly hidden by the extremely tall boots that she wore to complete her outfit, which stretched from her feet all the way up to her upper thighs, stopping just below the hem of her skirt.

The starter fired, and the image in Raven's mind blurred with the indistinct model for the imagination to detail gone, but Raven's eyes caught up with Star as she began the course, already meeting the laser firing defense drones with her signature starbolts, blasts of burning green plasma which the Tamaranian could produce almost endlessly to annihilate almost any foe. A number of drones were done for in the first few seconds, and the remainder followed shortly thereafter, leaving the alien girl to cry out in glee at her perfect aim and decimation of the opposing force. That is, until the barricade burst form the ground directly in front of her, too close for her to stop before she would crash into it with terrible force. Raven's hand was up in an instant, glowing darkly with the energy of her power, but she hesitated as Star gave a cry and fired a pair of especially large starbolts right through the barricade, allowing her to fly through it without incident. Raven's hand returned to her side to rest on her thigh, and she continued to watch Star's run, though she breathed a small sigh of relief before fully focusing her attention. The next obstacle made itself known in a hail of explosive disks that seemed to come from every direction at once, several combusting even as they barely brushed the alien girl's skin, causing her to cry out in pain. Still, the moment of indecisiveness was short lived, as starbolts seemed to explode forth from every part of Starfire's body, absolutely destroying any trace of the offending disks and their launchers.

Even if Star was normally very playful, she knew when it was time to be serious, and so she flew on with a stern face, watching closely for any sign of the next attack that would warn her of its coming. As the large mecha rose silently up from the ground she'd just passed over, hands already set for an overhead hammer blow, Star almost missed the sign completely. When she noticed the tiny clouds of dust lazily floating through the air beneath her, she barely turned in time to block the blow with her crossed arms, though the force still smashed her into the ground hard. For a moment, it looked like the Tamaranian might be stuck, unable to use her arms for anything more than keeping the large robot's assault at bay, but then beams of brilliant green energy lanced forth from Star's eyes and ripped the mechanical beast's top half in half, ending that challenge. The mecha was thrown from atop her body, and then Starfire was flying toward the finish line at full speed, hoping to make up for the time she lost wrestling the large robot. The laser cannons that appeared in her path vanished almost as soon as they made themselves known, so intent was Star on finishing in a timely manner.

She was quite surprised when yet another of Robin's new additions to the training program reared its ugly, tooth-filled maw, rising up out of the beach sand before her like a leviathan of myth and devouring her whole in a single chomp, before sliding back under the sands and completely vanishing from sight. Atop the tower, Raven's eyes even more wide and disbelieving than those of Cyborg and Beast Boy, who were standing down beside Robin. A moment of unbearable silence went by, hanging heavily over the heroes, and then the beach itself exploded, metal, sand, and other debris flying in every direction. When the smoke cleared, Starfire sat whole and unharmed, besides her slightly frazzled hair, over the finish line. Though she couldn't hear it from her vantage point, Raven imagined Star saying, as she turned her gaze on Robin . . .

"Robin, I believe that you enjoy 'training' us too much." Starfire said, looking at the other Titan with a slightly bewildered and overwhelmed look to her eyes. Robin smiled, walking out to help Star up from her sprawled position on the ground.

"Maybe, but it is all for a good cause." His smile slipped into a grin as he stepped back to give her room to stand now that she had her legs back underneath her. "Besides, it's always good to have your greatest threat be your best friend." Starfire blinked, looking at Robin curiously.

"I do not understand what you mean, but I will remember that . . ." It was at that moment that a glint of light high in the sky caught Starfire's eye, and she looked up to find the flash had originated from one of Raven's bracers.In her anxiousness and nervousness about running the obstacle course again, Starfire had completely forgotten that Raven was not down with them, but rather was up on the roof of the tower. She smiled, and waved up to the other female Titan, and gave a little giggle of amusement when her eyes caught a motion from Raven that must have been a return wave. Even as she looked up at the splotch of color high in the sky over her that was Raven, her mind brought up memories of the girl's form, supplementing and making up for the weakness of her visual recognition at that distance.

She wore those cute little boots, with hard-rubber soles as all shoes had, but they were otherwise an oddity due to the fact that they were made of the same, soft blue fabric as her cloak, with a heavy overhang that moved up her leg, making them almost like anklet socks turned into shoes. Above that there was nothing but her thin, ashen-skinned legs, all the way until her mid-section, where the lower portion of her skin-tight leotard covered her like . . . well, a second skin. Around it was her belt, a linking of about six deep-red gemstones set in gold, attached to one another by a thin thread that kept them hanging at an angle on her upper hips. From there, her form scrunched inward into a healthily thin waist, and then her body rolled back outwards into shoulders that were only slightly broader than her waist, and breasts of average size that were displayed surprisingly unabashedly by the skin-tight clothing. The leotard continued out into clinging sleeves which held tight against the thin, yet not devoid of strength, lengths of muscle and bone that were her arms. Attached at her wrists were a pair of cuffs of the same material as her cape, giving the illusion that the overhang set with another red gemstone inlaid in gold on the top of her hand was part of a glove rather than the body suit. Her fingers, probably now shifted so that her index finger and thumb were pressed together while the rest of her fingers were splayed out in a meditative position, were very long and rather thin and topped with finely manicured nails. All that lay on her shoulders slipped up into a formless collar that held half of Raven's small neck in its grip, and outward around that flowed her cloak, a long item that hung all the way to her feet and included a very large hood, though that was not up now.

Curiously, Starfire observed that the garment appeared to be more a part of Raven herself than any kind of fashion statement, moving almost seamlessly with Raven's whim, sometimes enclosing her form completely in its folds, and even growing with her as it had when they'd fought Dr. Light. But . . . that was not a moment Starfire liked to think about, not a Raven she liked to think about. Her mind returned to the mental image of Raven, not wishing to ponder on that disturbing night any further than necessary.

The whole of it was held about Raven's petite form by a single clasp, situated right over her heart, and locked beneath yet another dark jewel in gold. From above that rose Raven's purple-haired head, framed by that very hair, cropped just around her face with an almost "M" shape made of her brow, and no visible part in its locks to speak of. The hair itself hung nearly perfectly straight from her head, curling back upward slightly at the very bottom edge, but it still gave off an almost listless sense, although it somehow did so without such a negative connotation.

Truthfully, an accurate description of Raven's whole being, Starfire noted, a person hanging on the very edge of negativity, but remaining just out of its range. And Starfire knew why Raven was so, giving her a certain amount of pity for the other girl, and from this pity which she'd held even before she knew the truth came Star's almost relentless need and attempts to befriend such an obviously antisocial person as Raven.

The dark magus' jaw line curved gently down from her hidden ears, forming the ever faintest hint of a very feminine chin, and above that lay the dimple that divided the rise of her lower lip from that of her chin. Her lips were not very large at all, though more substantial than simple lines in the curves of her face, but were almost difficult to discern due to only being a slightly darker grey color than the rest of her skin. Rising further, the small triangle of Raven's nose was found, setting the line above which sat her eyes. They were large, though usually only half-open, and were a shade of almost violet, but a little darker, and seemed as though they would sparkle most beautifully in the light, if Raven could only afford enough emotion to give them such luster. Above each lay a heavy, dark eyebrow, perfectly groomed and between both was situated Raven's forehead jewel, a light red stone that Starfire had yet to even learn the name, or purpose, of.

Of course, the Tamaranian girl had learned by now that Raven was not the most easily understood of people, and had many secrets, but she did not doubt that eventually she would know more about her mysterious friend.Starfire's brief reverie was broken when she realized that the stone set in her choker and those on her hands were flashing brightly, as were parts of her fellow Titans. Robin needed to take only one look at his personal communicator, and then just as always he knew exactly what was happening.

"Titans, trouble in downtown, let's move!" At those words, everyone was off in a run, even Raven who was now gone from the edge of the rooftop. They were heroes, they were the Teen Titans, and villainy was afoot. Other things could wait until later.

"And the amazing Mumbo Jumbo completes another perfect show!" The blue-skinned top hat and suit wearing villain cried out in glee as he swung the last bag of stolen gems over his shoulder, before turning to his "audience." "I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but I'm going to have to ask you to hold your applause until . . . well, until you turn back into flesh in a few thousand years!" With a maniacal laugh tinted deeply with barely disguised giddiness, the mad magician went charging out the door of the gem store in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind five very horrified and realistic looking statues. He was forced to stop his flight only a few feet out into the street, though, as he found himself faced with five heroes, the Teen Titans. "Drat, not you meddling fools again!" He shouted at the heroes, glaring darkly as his magic wand came to his hand.

"I thought we told you never to practice your act in our city again, Mumbo?" Robin said, staff and bird-shaped throwing blades already in hand, and Cyborg picked up the line, a smirk on his face.

"Guess we'll just have to show you some magic of our own." A series of pops and cracks followed as the cybernetically enhanced human laid one huge hand over another, and then his smirk grew as his right arm shifted into its sonic cannon formation. Mumbo smiled sneered thinly at the overt threat.

"I think not, I'd rather just show you my amazing disappearing act and be on my way." And, before anyone could react to the proclamation, the wand snapped forward and the arcane absconder's magic words were shouted."Mumbo Jumbo!" In an explosion of dark purple smoke, he was gone, leaving most of the Titans staring in bewilderment at the empty spot where he had been just a moment before. Most, but not Raven.

"He's right over there." She pointed to the far right as she spoke, and sure enough, the amazing Mumbo Jumbo was attempting to quietly tip toe down a nearby alley.

"Eh, heh heh . . ." He smiled nervously, and then took off full speed down the alley way, and wasting no time, Robin gave the shouted order,

"Titans, go!" The chase was on then, with all five heroes charging after the fleeing filcher, dodging conjured obstacles left and right while doing their best to close the distance so that they could actually engage the magical maniac. That problem was solved a little sooner than usual when a truck that had been across the street from the alleyway exit suddenly turned pitch black and came screeching over to barricade that exit. Mumbo looked unperturbed, despite his now dead-end path, and only continued running, raising his wand as he did so to probably make the massive machine disappear or turn into something smaller, but he never got the chance to do so. A single starbolt impacted the truck cab on the side, and the whole vehicle went up in flames quite explosively, leaving the path once again clear, besides a little burning debris, but also leaving the malicious mage flat on his back in the middle of the alley.

"You will not be running anymore, it is time for you to go to jail for what you have done." Starfire said quietly as she floated just inside the confines of the alley, the flames just behind her silhouetting her form in dark light, her position effectively blocking any possibility of escape. Padding in menacingly in from Star's side of the alley was Beast Boy in the form of a tiger, moving very slowly toward the prone prankster, and from the other end came Robin, Cyborg took up a similar block position as Starfire on the opposite side. Just as the feline and avian heroes came within striking distance of Mumbo Jumbo, though, everything went wrong. The magician sat up, smiling from ear to ear, wand in hand.

"Sorry, but I've got another five shows to do before the day is out, and I really can't be late." He gestured, and suddenly there was a rather large flower growing beneath him, almost instantaneously reaching a height greater than that of the two buildings and allowing the mad magician to hop right off onto the roof of the slightly nearer one. He still was not done, even as the plant withered to dust as soon as he was no longer in contact with it, as he demonstrated when he turned about to look down on his heroic foes, and then gestures to the buildings with his wand. "Mumbo Jumbo!" Suddenly, the two buildings were moving inexorably together, threatening to crush anything and everything between them, and the mysterious plates of metal that had appeared all around the open parts of the alley made the situation all the worse. "See you in the funnies, or more likely, the obituaries!" Mumbo called to the trapped Titans with malicious glee, before taking off across the rooftop and leaping to the next building, assured of his victory.

Raven, floating high above the two buildings would have stopped his flight, but for the time being, saving her friends had a much greater priority for her.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!!!" Streams of absolutely black energy flew outward from the mysterious girl's outstretched finger tips, flying down and sinking all the way to the foundations of the two buildings. And then Raven was gritting her teeth, as she attempting to stop the virtually inexorable movement of the buildings, though it appeared that she was only managing to slow it. A feminine scream slipped up through whatever small space there was between the buildings and the metal blockers put in place by the evil magician, and then there came a tremendous "SNAP" that filled the air. A moment later, the blockers vanished, their spell broken by sheer force, as the two buildings now sitting and extra two feet apart from one another attested to. From within the slightly less cramped confines of the alley came a few cheers from the less serious Titans, but much like Robin, Raven understood that they only had a small amount of time to catch Mumbo Jumbo before he caused more trouble, and took off at top speed after the eccentric evoker, the rest of the Titans following just slightly behind her for a few different reasons.

After hopping ten buildings already without any sign of chase, Mumbo was quite sure that he had nothing left to worry about when it came to the Teen Titans, and gave a rather dark chuckle at why he assumed such a thing. So he was indeed quite surprised when he felt the heavy weight of a packing box smash him in the side, blowing him several feet back on the rooftop from the force of the impact.

"You tried to hurt my friends." Raven growled from her position not more than six feet from Mumbo Jumbo, another five boxes glowing with her power and floating in the air behind her. The villainous magician managed to hide his surprise at Raven's appearance, and simply smiled.

"Well, I don't think I'm the fir-" His words were cut off by having to dodge to the side so as not to be struck by yet another box, and the Mumbo laughed mockingly. "Your tricks are all so simple, let me show you what a real magician can do." He gestured with his wand toward the remaining boxes and . . . they remained floating in the air, enveloped in Raven's power. The arcane absconder blinked, and gestured again with the same total lack of effect.

"I think it's time for you to go back to jail." Raven said quietly, before letting the boxes drop of her own accord and starting to advance on Mumbo, step by step. In an attempt to stop her, he fired off everything he had, trick cards, explosive flowers, geysers of water, even rampaging buffalo, but all were stopped with a simple gesture of Raven's hand. Finally, the rest of the team appeared on the next roof top over, having caught up to the fighting pair. The mad magician looked back briefly at the new arrivals, then to Raven again, and knew that he wasn't going anywhere. But, that didn't mean that he didn't have one last parting trick up his sleeve.

"I may be going back to jail, but I'll be going back happy if I know that you've disappeared from existence." He said to Raven darkly, before a small kerchief appeared in his other hand, glowing dangerously. "Get thee out of my realm, leave no black plume as a token of that life thy soul has lived, take thy beak from my sight, and take thy form from off my land!" The fact that the kerchief was fairly sizzling with energy by the time Mumbo Jumbo had finished speaking the spell was not a good sign, and with a quick malicious smile, he sent it flying straight for Raven, the cloth expanding in size as it flew through the air so that it would be large enough to envelope the dark magus.

"Raven!" Starfire cried in worry for her friend, as she watched the extremely dangerous looking square of fabric fly toward her, and the rest of the Titan's looked on in horror, knowing they were all too far away to do anything to help. Raven, her face hidden from view by the shadow of her cowl, only raised her hands.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Her hands positively exploded with black energy as she spoke her magic words, and with but a single shove, she sent the spell-imbued kerchief flying right back at Mumbo. He screamed in fear of what he knew the spell would do to him, and his cry turned midway into one of despair as the cloth instead landed on his wand, taking a moment to wrap around the object completely before it and the fabric blinked out of existence. In a flash, Mumbo Jumbo became a middle-aged balding man with a large nose, and several sacks of jewelry plopped about him.

"Eh . . . can't we discuss this?" He asked nervously, as all five Titans advanced on his seated form.


	3. The Sleepy Birdy

**Chapter 3: The Sleepy Birdy**

Titanus, a robot built with immense, almost unthinkable strength and little cognitive ability, originally meant to ease the manpower required for heavy construction activities. But, thanks to the actions of an insane programmer, Titanus instead became a pure destructive force, bent on reducing everything and anything within sight to a pile of crumbled rubble. This put him within the jurisdictionof the Teen Titans.

"You're done wreaking everything here, Titanus, now we're going to wreak you." The gigantic monster of metal slowly turned to face his foes, still holding a twisted girder from the building he had just collapsed. Knowing that now was most definitely not the time to be dramatic, all of the Titans wasted no time in attacking, Robin throwing a number of explosive disks at the giant robot while Cyborg and Starfire peppered it with their respective projectiles. The initial barrage didn't even cause Titanus to flinch though, and this caused Beast Boy's assault on it from behind to fail miserably, as the clockwork contraption turned about and smashed the green gorilla square in the face with its warped steel girder, sending the diminutive shape changer flying away. Even Raven's attempt to rip the pavement up from under it to off balance the monster of metal failed, as it was too massive to move no matter how much she concentrated and strained. Definitely not one of their better starts to a battle when compared with the many villains they had faced, but being a stubborn lot, this didn't deter the Titans in the least.

"Raven, find something that will do some damage, we'll keep him busy!" Robin called out to the dark magus, realizing that they wouldn't win this particular battle without at least a little strategy, and then he looked to Cyborg and Starfire. "Cy, Star, suppression fire!" The two looked to each other as they heard the words and nodded, before putting even more effort into their projectile assaults, actually managing to begin pushing Titanus back as explosions lit up its metal body. Robin charged straight on toward the robot, trusting that at least the smoke and flashes of light from the attacks would blind the berserk builder to his attack, and Beast Boy, recognizing the pattern, hung back just a little behind Robin. Starfire and Cyborg split, running long, curving paths in opposite directions, until they were both concentrating on opposite sides of Titanus' body, allowing its vision to clear. But, this came in time only for the demented destructor to see Robin vaulting over its massive form using his staff for a pole, allowing it an ineffectual grab for his lithe form before he kicked off what remained of the building behind Titanus and smashed hard against the robot's upper back with a powerful kick. The beast toppled forward, only to be met by a pair of immense, hairy, green fists, which promptly crashed against what passed for its jaw and sent Titanus falling back in the opposite direction, sure to fall hard on the rubble of the nearly destroyed building behind it. Therefore, the pair of dumpsters Raven dropped on Titanus as he fell seemed like a bit overkill, but she had always been a bit cautious like that.

Ultimately, this left the Titans facing a fully collapsed building, completely shrouded in a cloud of kicked up brick dustings and other fine, tiny particles. Somehow, despite the total lack of sound or movement of any kind throughout the whole of the demolished area, they all knew that it was far from over. They were right, as was proven when the monstrous machine came bursting forth from the building wreckage, making no real sound of its own, like a scream of rage or a roar. But perhaps that was because it had no need to, as there was a palpable shroud of pure menace hanging about the whole of the area as it silently rose from its premature burial mound.

Ever the one to have to make some sort of attempt at a joke in a tense situation, Beast Boy couldn't help but swallow rather noisily as he stared up at the towering form of the robot and then say,

"Guys, I think we're gonna die." For the briefest moment, Starfire looked away form Titanus to say some words of reproach to Beast Boy, and that was when it struck. As little more than a blur with moonlight flashing off of its polished metal surface, Titanus closed the distance between Starfire and itself in an instant, striking the unguarded alien with a blow that sent her tumbling end over end across the ground all the way to Robin, Beast Boy, and Raven's general position several yards away. And then there was no time for words of worry or promises of vengeance of any kind, as Titanus was right among them, steel formed fists flying and just barely missing their intended victims. A flip threw Robin's form just over one such wreaking ball swing and gave him just enough breathing room to slip an birdarang from his belt and send it flying for the beast's head. It bounced uselessly off of one of the giant's raised fists, but the brief reprieve gave Beast Boy enough time to shift into a snake and slither out of the dangerous melee, though Starfire was still too dazed from the massive machine's last blow to follow.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" The time she needed to escape was supplied when waves of Raven's black, telekinetic energy flew outward and then sent everything not bolted to the ground crashing into Titanus. The Tamaranian distanced herself from the robot, now too busy blocking the object assault to do much else, as soon as her senses returned to her and then fired up a pair of starbolts. To both Raven and Star's surprise, Titanus suddenly stopped blocking the random objects being thrown at it by Raven and instead caught one, a metal garbage can. It threw the can right back at Raven, knocking her from the air and completely breaking her concentration, which in turn caused the assault as a whole to fall back to the ground as piles of useless junk. She tossed the receptacle off of herself after crashing to the ground, and besides the little trickle of blood from the side of her mouth, she was essentially fine, and once Starfire could see as much, she took to the air.

From high in the sky she rained down a furious bombardment of bolts, lighting up Titanus' metallic body with a near constant nimbus of green light as explosions screamed into brief life all about and over it. Ponderously, it oriented itself on Starfire's exact position, preparing to make a counter attack of some sort, before it received a jarring blow to the head from the light pole Cyborg was now wielding. Another two blows cracked hard against its steel-forged body before it caught the pole up in one massive hand, but Cyborg gladly abandoned the make-shift weapon, moving out of the way right as Robin threw his salvo of explosive disks. The explosion rocked the form of the deranged destructor, leaving it completely unguarded as a large, dark shadow fell over it. A moment later, Beast Boy, borrowing the form of a stegosaurus for the time being, came crashing down atop Titanus with a deafening sound, almost shaking those Titans standing on the ground from their feet with the force of the impact. Disappointingly, the mechanical monstrosity proved up to the task of taking whatever the Titans could throw at it, simply standing back up from beneath the massive beast that lay over it and tossing him away like a rag doll. Starfire caught Beast Boy before he could crash against anything, and the expression on the shape shifter's face as she did so told the story even better than the words he spoke.

"Dude, we are so boned." Things were indeed looking bleak for the team, as they had yet to injure the giant robot in any tangible way, despite throwing everything they had at it.

"Don't have much choice now . . ." Robin muttered quietly as he watched Titanus with narrowed eyes, knowing what had to be done. "Cyborg, I want to try the Sonic Blitz." He called to the fellow Titan, still watching Titanus warily as the giant robot slowly began plodding toward the nearby cybernetically-enhanced athlete and himself.

"You're crazy! We both know that move will never work, and there's a good chance that it'll kill your spikey-headed butt too!" Cyborg called back, watching the deranged destructor just as warily as the boy wonder did.

"It's not like we've got a lot of options here, it's sink or swim." Robin retorted, not moving at all from his crouched position, hoping to keep Titanus from attack before they were ready.

"Alright, but if you die trying to pull this off, I ain't paying for the funeral." Cyborg agreed, looking over at Robin with a smirk as his right arm shifted to its sonic blaster configuration.

"Don't worry, cause we'll all probably be having a reunion six feet under if I don't pull this off." A curious thing for Robin to say, but it always seemed to make the prospect of dying easier to accept when he remained light-hearted to what might be the end. His staff came to his hand, extended to its full length, and then he was off running in Cyborg's direction, just as the technological terror was doing then. Titanus charged as soon as the two began seriously moving, giving the pair only a moment to complete their plan before it would be right on top of them. In the moment that they would have collided, Cyborg dove to the side and Robin pivoted on one foot, leaving him charging to meet Titanus head-on with Cy on the ground behind him. Then Cyborg fired his sonic blaster, the waves of concentrated sound energy rocketing forth from his emitter to smash directly on their mark, the middle of Robin's back.

The blast's impact sent shivers through the boy wonder's bones, but also catapulted him at Titanus at an incredible speed, pole held before him like a spear. They met with tremendous force, causing a sound like a thousand thunder claps all going off simultaneously to rip through the air, Robin's staff shattering from the sheer force and stress of the impact, but not before punching a hole larger than a fist straight through Titanus' torso. Both fell back, Titanus onto its back on the ground, seemingly disabled, and Robin into a crouched position just before the fallen robot, breathing hard as the signals of intense pain from the nerves in his back caught up with his brain. And, for a few moments, hope fluttered in the hearts of the Teen Titans.

Then Titanus stood back up. Robin only had a moment to gape in horror as the beast towered over him before one massive fist connected solidly with his chest and sent him flying into the side of a building past Raven, Beast Boy, and Star's concentration on the opposite side of the open alley junction, collapsing the wall as he crashed into it.

"Robin!" Starfire cried out in horror, not even hesitating to fly over to the building, even as the other Titans grimly prepared to renew the battle with Titanus. She reached it to the backdrop of furious fighting, as the remaining three heroes did their best to hold off the mechanical monstrosity, though all were too hard pressed in doing so to even be able to look back and see if Robin was all right. The Tamaranian dug through the piles of crushed and broken bricks, fearing the worst, until she finally uncovered Robin's head. For a moment, his features lay very, very still, and Star nearly screamed aloud as it seemed her absolute worst fears had come to pass. Then he coughed, sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, and smiled a little weakly.

"Thanks, it was getting kind of hard to breath down there." Starfire giggled, and now that she knew where he was in the pile, easily dug the rest of his body out of the rubble.

"Are you unhurt, can you move?" She asked, as she slipped hands and arms under him to feel for spinal damage or similar incapacitating injuries.

"No, but now that you're here, I think I'm perfect." At some point, Robin's arms had found their way around Starfire, similar to how hers lay holding him in a way just short of a hug. Their eyes locked, and suddenly, as if drawn toward one another by inexorable forces, Starfire and Robin slowly drew together for a kiss.

And, with the most questionable timing possible, Raven found her moment to look back and check on Robin right then, and found herself watching as Starfire and Robin held each other and were slowly coming together for a kiss. She turned away immediately, her features completely hidden by the shadow of her cowl. Then her eyes flared within that shadow, "shining" with darkness so deep, so absolute, and so unbelievably powerful that it was white.

"Azarath . . ." She intoned, her voice echoed strangely from some mysterious, hidden source that seems to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. "metrion . . ." Titanus stopped dead in its tracks, suddenly finding itself completely unable to move as Raven's power engulfed it, while Cyborg and Beast Boy looking on in bewilderment. "ZINTHOS!" Raven's arms raised up from her cloak, dark energy surging around her hands as Titanus also raised up off of the ground. She spread her fingers wide, and the screeches and moans of tortured, twisting metal filled the air, while sparks and tiny flashes of electrical current began to show all over the monster machine's body. She then threw her arms out wide, and in a tremendous explosion of both literal fire, and of blown out pieces of warped metal, crushed circuitry and broken parts, Titanus was no more.

All of the other Titans openly gawked at Raven's sheer display of raw power, even Starfire and Robin, their attempt at a kiss having been interrupted by Titanus' spectacular demise. The dark light faded from Raven's eyes, and her arms drew back into the hidden depths of her cloak. Before anyone could say anything to her at all, the dark shadow of a raven rose up around her, and she was gone. Even after she had vanished, though, Starfire continued to stare at the spot where Raven had been, her face twisted in worry.

"Raven . . ."

For once, the fridge in the kitchen of the Tower was well stocked with food, as Starfire noticed when she pulled open the door to the ice box. She grabbed a couple of relatively random items; some soda, processed cheese, Tabasco, left-over turkey meat, ice cream from the freezer section, that sort of thing; and then set them on the counter before closing the refrigerator door back up. Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Robin were all over by the entertainment center, playing another of their strange games to relax after their difficult fight with Titanus, and they had asked Starfire earlier if she could get them some snacks, a request to which she agreed, of course. So there she was, absently making combinations of the food items that seemed like they would go together, like the Tabasco and the ice cream.

Absently because, though her body was quite occupied with the job, her mind was giving it almost no thought at all. It was too focused on the puzzle that was Raven, easily the most confounding of all the Titans to Star, especially in the light of happenings as of late. Beast Boy and Cyborg had written off Raven's recently increased powers as nothing more than the refinement of her abilities, and while Robin remained silent on the matter; he never had been one to speculate until he knew the answer already; Starfire understood Raven's powers well enough from their misadventure with the Puppet King that such a drastic increase in power was neither normal, nor necessarily good. The increase in power meant one thing for sure, though, that Raven was feeling more than usual, that Raven was controlling her emotions less effectively than normal. It could not simply be that she was losing her control over all her emotions, that thought was as ludicrous as thinking Raven's destruction of Titanus was normal, because Raven had been doing so her whole life, and understood the necessity of stifling her emotional responses quite well. Therefore, it had to originate at a single, major emotion being heightened by circumstance to unusual levels. So, if the power increase stemmed from new or greater feeling, what emotion was she experiencing?

Was it anger? No, though her destruction of Titanus earlier showed a similar amount of power, there was no malevolence in what she had done, and Starfire had also not seen those horrid, red eyes that she had seen the last time. Sadness and depression? Perhaps, there was a little of that emotion in the way she had been acting recently, but it was not the root of the problem. Fear? No, this was nothing like her last response to fear, and there were no special occurrences that should have caused her to feel such an emotion until the difficult fight with Titanus, and her power increases began before that. Happiness . . . no, not only could Starfire not bring herself to think that being happy could be a bad thing, but she couldn't believe that Raven was being made so happy by something, despite all her wishful thinking otherwise. Was Raven in love with someone? No, she wasn't really acting unusually around any of the boys, and she did not go out of the Tower often enough to suggest that she had met and fallen in love with one of the citizens of the city.

What was it then? If she was not happy or sad, angry or in love, or frightened, then what could she be feeling? The Tamaranian's shoulders slumped in defeat, just as they had an hour earlier when she had tried to speak to Raven after arriving back at the Tower, knocking on her door and calling out to her but getting no answer, even attempting to pry the door open, but to no avail. And so she knew she had yet again been defeated by the puzzle that was Raven, and worse, she knew that Raven would suffer for her failure. Further thought on the subject was cut off, though, as a cold, wet snout pressed itself against one of Star's arms, breaking her from her pondering. Beside her stood; or rather, sat on his haunches; Beast Boy, already shifted into the form of a dog, eyes large and sad looking while a whine continually emanated from the creature's throat.

"Do not worry, Beast Boy, I will be over shortly with your sugar confections and other unhealthy snack foods." She said, gently patting the green dog on the head, before the shape shifting hero rushed back to the couch and the game. Starfire collected up the concoctions she had prepared while thinking about Raven's situation onto a small tray, and then hefted that up into her arms, finally orienting herself on the couch to return there with the snacks. But, before she did, she briefly looked up at the ceiling in the direction she knew Raven's room lay. 'How can I help you, Raven?' She thought, before sighing quietly and floating over to the couch with her burden.

"Focus, find your center . . ." Raven murmured quietly within the confines of her room, already in her meditative posture. "Focus, find your center . . ." Her eyes were closed quite tightly, and her brow creased with exertion as she put all of her effort into clearing her mind. "Focus, find you- . . ." The image came unbidden into her mind, that of Robin and Starfire in each other's arms, just about to kiss, and completely shattered what little concentration she had. With a growl, she swung her hand through the air before her, trying to physically push the image from her mind, but she succeeded only in sending a few of the books from her bookcase flying across the room due to the uncontrolled power her emotions were generating.

It was useless, and she knew it all too well. There was no way to change the way things were, no way to change the fact that Robin and Starfire loved each other . . . and sparkling tears began to slide down her cheeks as the thoughts continued to come on relentlessly, even forcing her to whisper the horrible truth that wrenched her heart so much within her chest.

"No way for Starfire to love me like I love her . . ." She wasn't really sure when her feelings for Star began to develop, maybe it had been as soon as the very first time she had seen the Tamaranian girl, so happy, care-free, and kind. All she knew was that, in that moment when Starfire vanished into the wormhole with Warp, her heart stopped beating in her chest. And, for the agonizing, eternal few seconds that Starfire was gone, she could almost feel everything inside of her dying in absolute and abject horror. When the alien girl reappeared, such emotion flooded her that she almost ran to the girl to hug her in total relief. She didn't, because Robin got there first.

That was just over a week ago, and unfortunately, Raven's feelings for Starfire had only grown stronger, if anything. But that didn't matter, whatever feelings she had didn't matter, all that mattered was that Starfire already loved Robin. Besides, why would Starfire ever love her? They were both women, it was unnatural for them to have that sort of relationship, and there was no way that anyone else could accept that, even if Starfire could. Raven wasn't even really much of a woman, just a strange, brooding little creature who sat in her dark little room and pretended to understand the ancient powers that she commanded, pretended to control things as simple as her own emotions. How could anyone ever love that?

It was all just too much, too much pain, too many depressive thoughts, too much to think about, too much everything. Even as the silent tears continued to fall from Raven's violet eyes, she clutched at her head, trying to make all of that pain stop and just go away. Even if Starfire stopped loving Robin and instead loved Raven, how would it ever work out? They were completely different personalities with absolutely nothing in common. Raven shook her head, remembering all the times they'd meditated together, the shopping, the fairy tales, the - . . . NOTHING in common at all. Worse, no one else would ever accept it, the rest of the Titans would probably throw them both out of the team the minute they found out.

"No . . ." Raven whispered, knowing that all of the Titans understood that things, people, weren't wrong just because they were different. With a snarl, her powers lashed out and threw another couple of books across the room, this time with enough force that they actually tore apart upon impact in a shower of pages and leather binding. Sleep, that was what Raven needed right then, that would make her feel better, and everything would be nicer in the morning. She hesitated, knowing that she was not sleepy, she never was until considerably later in the evening. But, even as Raven looked toward her bed questioningly, it began to look more and more inviting, until she couldn't stand it anymore and went to it. Her cloak, her wrist bands, her boots, and her belt, all of these things were taken off and dropped beside Raven's bed, before she slid into it and fell almost instantly asleep. Her sleep was indeed quite peaceful, and everything in the room grew very still and serene, now that Raven was no longer up and about.

Everything, that is, except for the creature perched just above the door to the room, a creature made of pure darkness, and shaped into the form of a raven, but given sight by four, menacing slits in its head, all of which glowed a very dark red. The demon raven watched Raven sleep for a few moments, and when she suddenly twisted in her sleep, as if in pain, it let loose a malevolent, cawing laugh. And then it was gone from atop the chamber door, simply vanishing from existence with only the faintest sound of a spoken word marking its passing.

"Nevermore."


	4. Never Never Land

**Chapter 4: Never Never Land**

"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not making a real omelette for breakfast!?" Beast Boy yelled at Cyborg from the kitchen as they fought for dominance of that morning's breakfast making.

"And how many times do I have to tell you, I ain't eating that stupid tofu stuff!?" Meanwhile, on the couch in front of the view screen, Robin was working on changing the bandages on his "souvenirs" from the fight with Titanus, the ones on his left arm being his current target. Of course, all of the shouting and screaming, along with the occasional "clang" of a thrown pot or pan hitting something, wasn't making that a very easy thing to do.

"C'mon, tofu is good for you, and no poor, defenseless animals had to be slaughtered to make it!"

"No way, you're not bringing the 'poor, defenseless animals' into this, it ain't about that!" Cyborg snatched up an egg from the carton as he spoke, moving it over to the already hot skillet in front of him. "What it's about is filling my belly with good, REAL food, and this is both, so this is what I'm gonna eat!" Before he could crack the egg he held, though, the green hawk that Beast Boy had become snatched it from his grasp, landing on the counter a few feet away.

"You're not cooking this egg!" He said as he formed back into himself, crouching on the counter top.

"What do you care anyway, all of these eggs are sterilized, they ain't hatching into anything?!" Cyborg shouted in exasperation, but Beast Boy only pulled the egg he held closer to his body.

"It's the principle of the thing."

"Oh, I'll show you 'principle!'" And, in virtually no time at all, the shouting match in the kitchen degenerated into a full-blown fight, complete with the cloud and everything. That was the last straw for Robin, who had already stabbed himself four times with the bandage clip due to the noise. He stood up, the bandages on his arm slipping off and falling to the ground, turned to face in the direction the two lay, opened his mouth to shout and . . .

"Friends, something is horribly wrong with Raven!". . . was preempted by the worried cry Starfire let loose as soon as she came into the room. The fight stopped, due to exactly how worried Star sounded, but Cyborg didn't yet actually take his hand off of the green-tinted shape shifter's neck, nor lower his fist which was poised to come crashing down on the smaller hero's head. Robin shook his head at the two, and then looked to Star.

"What do you mean, what's wrong with Raven?" He asked, wanting to figure out exactly what was going on before taking any action.

"She will not wake up, I tried- . . ." Starfire began, but even before she got very far Robin raised his hand with his palm open.

"Starfire, she's probably just tired from the fight last night, and besides-. . ." Now it was the Tamaranian's turn to interrupt.

"No, you do not understand, this is not normal and Raven is not all right!" By that point, Beast Boy and Cyborg had climbed off of each other and were looking at Star questioningly, just as Robin was. Starfire stared at all three of them, and the way they were regarding her, and in desperation clasped her hands together in front of her. "Please, you must believe me. Something is wrong with Raven." After a moment, Robin sighed a little and then nodded.

"Alright guys, let's go check on Raven." Even before they left the room, Robin started to worry that something truly was wrong, as Star did not smile or cry out in joy at his agreement, only flew back out the door to the room and into the hallway. As he and the others followed, he sincerely hoped that Starfire was wrong this time.

Raven was indeed still sleeping in her bed when the other Titans arrived, and quite soundly by the looks of things. As soon as they were all there, Starfire began her demonstration.

"It is time to wake up, Raven, no more sleeping the day away, so please, wake up." Despite the soft way the words were spoken, and the almost motherly lilt they possessed, they came out as pleading, Star's worry controlling the tone of her voice. When there was no response, she tentatively reached down to take hold of Raven's shoulder, and then gently shook her, but, besides the motion produced by the shake itself and the steady rise and fall of Raven's chest beneath the covers, the dark magus remained still as death. Starfire tried shaking her once again, but she already knew the attempt to be futile, and so let go of the girl's shoulder and looked to Robin, her green eyes pleading for an answer, a solution, anything to make things better. The boy wonder raised his hands up to gesture, his mouth opening to tell Star that she was overreacting, but Cyborg stopped him.

"One sec, dude." And then he ran from the room, returning in a moment with a bucket full of what could only be assumed was cold water. "Wakey wakey, Raven, time to get up!" The cybernetically enhanced humanoid shouted gleefully, before swinging the bucket forward and letting the contents fly out and toward Raven. With a cry, Starfire leapt away from the side of the bed, and narrowly avoided getting wet herself as the whole bucketful of water splashed over Raven's form drenching her and her bed completely. Cyborg's mischievous smile slipped from his features, though, when Raven did not stir at all, not even as the water began to soak into the bed beneath her. Cyborg let the bucket drop to the floor with a hollow, metallic "clang," and then shared a worried look with Robin.

Beast Boy, as dense as he always was, wasn't yet satisfied, and gave his knuckles a quick crack.

"Alright then, Raven, if you're going to be difficult, we'll just have to bring out the big guns." Before anyone could move to stop him, Beast Boy had already transformed into a rather large-clawed, green lobster and leapt onto Raven's chest. With what was probably the crustacean equivalent of a giggle, he gave her a nice, strong pinch on the cheek, but even that did not draw a twitch from Raven's sleeping form. With another leap, this time off of Raven's body, Beast Boy became himself. "Guys, something is wrong." Robin just shook his head and looked once again to Cyborg, who nodded, already knowing what the other boy was going to say.

"I'll go get the equipment." He murmured before quietly leaving the room, while Robin went to Raven's side. Without saying a word, he took a flashlight from his utility belt and carefully opened one of the girl's eyes, shining the light in to check on the speed of her pupil dilation. Then he moved to her neck, first removing his glove and replacing the flashlight in favor of a watch, and took her pulse. Lastly, he checked the skin on her arm, noting the fact that it was drawn up in goose pimples, and then gently prodded her hand a few times with a pointed metal stick, noting the truly minute muscle response to the action, but the overall lack of nervous response. By that time, Cyborg arrived back with a number of machines and devices on a table, which he hooked up to Raven as Robin continued his examination.

Meanwhile, Starfire stood off to the side, her normally smiling features still contorted with horrible worry and a barely noticeable mote of guilt. After several more minutes, and to the somewhat soothing background noise of even, consistent beeps from the heart monitor, the two stepped away from Raven's bedside and came over to the other anxious Titans.

"There's nothing scientifically wrong with her." Cyborg said quietly, though all that did to Starfire's expression was change it to one of confusion.

"But . . ." She began, looking past the two to the other girl's still form, before Robin answered her unspoken question.

"But despite that, she's still not waking up, yes." He looked back to Raven, even as he spoke. "I want to run some more tests, see if I can figure out what's actually wrong with her, but that's going to take time." It was at that moment that the room became aglow with multicolored flashing light, light emanating from all of the signaling devices on each Titan.

"No . . ." Starfire whispered, looking down at her blinking gems and knowing quite well what their flashing meant. Robin pulled his personal communicator from his belt, face grave, and looked at it for a few moments, and then put it away again. "And time is something we don't have right now." Briefly, he looked over each of the three Titans before him, making sure they all understood the gravity of the situation.

"One of us has to stay with her." Before anyone else could say anything, an unexpected voice called out.

"Starfire . . ." The eyes of all the remaining Titans were drawn to Raven's form in her bed, just as her mouth closed again. They said nothing, and quietly returned their gazes to one another. Robin looked to Star, question in the set of his features, and after just a moment's hesitation, she nodded an affirmative.

"Alright Team, let's go." The room emptied with the words, leaving only Starfire and her charge to occupy it, alone in the oppressive silence of it all, save for that slow, steady beeping, and the gentle sound of Raven's breathing. Silently, Starfire moved to the side of Raven's bed, walking with a slow step to muffle the sound of her booted footfalls. She took a seat in the chair that Cyborg had brought up with the equipment, and started to dry the water from Raven's face with the towel that Cyborg had also had the foresight to bring up. Her work went just a little bit longer than it originally needed to, as a few extra splotches of salty liquid fell upon the comatose girl's face.

"Raven, please . . . please just wake up . . ."

Within Raven's mind, all was naught but shadow and darkness, a wasteland of absolute emptiness without end, the tiny pathways that floated within its entropy desolate of life of any kind. And, right in the middle of it all stood Raven.

"Why am I here? I'm not meditating. I'm sleeping." She said without saying, looking around warily for signs of a disturbance. She flinched when she suddenly found a pair of arms draped over her shoulders and herself pulled into a hug with the body attached to those arms.

"Because I brought you here, dear Raven." The voice was hers, but it was at the same time not hers, and disturbed her greatly as she examined the appearance of the arms wrapped about her chest.

"Why?" Raven asked, for the moment resisting the urge to fight her way apart from the unusual being holding her. Somehow, she knew that a smile came to the face of the creature behind her, and one of its hands came up from its resting place on her chest to caress her cheek.

"Because you're my plaything, and I won't have anyone else toying with you while I'm not around to pull the strings." The intimate touch ceased, and the hand fell back to its original position. "Besides, now is the absolute best possible time to make your body mine, as it was originally intended to be." Raven growled quietly in the deepest part of her throat, and her body tensed for a move.

"Who or what are you?" Again, she felt herself being favored with that cruel, patronizing smile.

"Why, I'm you, dear Raven, or rather, what you really are." Raven broke free of the holding arms in a flurry of movement and leapt away from the figure, looking back at it over her shoulder even as she landed a few feet away from it. It was indeed her, from what she could tell even down to the most minor of details. The only differences lay in her black attire instead of blue, the obsidian stones replacing her gems, and the eyes. Instead of having Raven's eyes, it had four, triangular slits that glowed red, like the color of freshly spilt blood, still warm from the heat of its owner's body.

"You!" She yelled, standing and spinning to face her tormentor as she recognized the eyes, her hands coming up to hold in a defensive posture before her, but the creature that looked like her only laughed and emanated that patronizing feeling even more strongly.

"Don't pretend like you actually know me, dear Raven, because I already know that you don't, you simply recognize my symbol." Raven's blustery front faded slightly, the mask of utter assurance falling away from her features to reveal her confusion.

"Your symbol?"

"Ah, ah, no telling yet, as you've already asked all of your allowed questions for the time being, and besides, I have a friend who has just been aching to meet you again." It gestured to the "sky" above them and as a horrid screech ripped through the stillness, a monstrous bird-like creature came bearing down on Raven from above. She dove to the side to dodge its initial diving attack, just missing the creature's "fanged" snapping beak by inches. As she landed, Raven chanced a glance in the direction the imposter had been standing in before but found no sign of it then. There was no more time to contemplate that fact, as the demon bird came by for another pass, forcing Raven to roll to the side to avoid it, though its trailing, barbed tail still managed to cut a bloody line in her stomach, despite.

With a sound of annoyance, she pressed one arm tight over the wound to slow the bleeding. Meanwhile, the beast turned about to have another pass, cawing with glee at having injured its opponent. Raven decided her strategy with a single flash assessment and even as the monster was winging toward her at a high speed, she charged it head on. This confused the creature, as the behavior of prey was to avoid and run, not charge and attack. Its snap with its beak when they met came a moment too late, as Raven dove beneath the beast, a move which would have been suicide against a real bird of that size. Due to the nightmarish creature's lack of legs, though, the safest place in the world for a ground-based combatant was beneath it. She was left behind it before its tail could even react, and this gave Raven the time and concentration she needed to send a number of loose rocks from the walkway crashing into the monster bird's body.

It seemed unaffected by the assault, but Raven cared little for that fact, as she knew all she needed to about it by that point. So, as it came around for yet another pass, she simply stood her ground, further confusing the simple-minded predator. Regardless, it flew at her full-speed, beak aching to taste her tender flesh. Instead it tasted only cold, hard stone as Raven ripped up a huge section of walkway just before her and raised it in the beast's path an instant after it was too late to maneuver around. The creature's broken form vanished in a few moments after Raven came over to examine it, prompting her to look off into the nothingness that was her mind.

"Whatever you are, you're going to have to do better than that." She murmured, heading off down the walkway in the direction she knew the portal out of her mind lay. And, behind her, a metal soled and toed shoe fell quietly upon the walkway, and a black and yellow double-sided cape blew about slightly in the nonexistent wind of her mindscape.

It was dark out, and off in the far distance just above the horizon lay the shining moon, still casting a considerable amount of light even as it was just beneath half-empty. It was this that Starfire silently contemplated as she stood before the windows in Raven's room, having needed to take a break from sitting by Raven's bedside and worrying away all the skin on her hands. She knew, though, that no matter how long she stared off into the starlit night, she would still find Raven's comatose form on the bed behind her. She knew that she had to do something, that there was something she could do to save Raven. The problem was, she didn't know what that something was, did not have even the faintest of notions to that effect.

In silence, Starfire pulled her arms tight around herself, a feeble attempt to ward her body against the dropping temperature in the room, and the heavy chill of dread that had invaded her very soul. She turned to face the bed again, despite her fear of what she might find in doing so. In the silvery moonlight that filtered through the window behind the Tamaranian, Raven's skin looked even more pale and ashen then it usually did, so much so that she actually looked a little sickly. It was at that point that Starfire realized that there was a spot on Raven's a comforter, a slowly growing, dark red spot right over her stomach. She wanted to cry out in shock and worry, or some other suitable emotion at that moment, but even with her optimism whispering sweet nothings into her ear, she had always known that something horrible was happening to Raven. Like the specter of death, Starfire floated over to Raven's bed and very carefully removed the blanket from the dark magus' form, only to find a long, thin gash across Raven's stomach, a wound that sluggishly wept blood. There was no surprise in the Tamaranian's clear, green eyes at the discovery of the wound, even though she had been in the room with Raven constantly since that morning, and therefore knew that there was no possible way an assailant could have snuck in and inflicted the wound. Fear, though, lay entrenched deep in her eyes and her heart as she stared at Raven's still form on the bed, who looked exactly as if she was simply sleeping, if it weren't for the wound on her stomach.

Bandages and disinfectant came from the cart of supplies, and soon Starfire was absently wrapping Raven's mid-section up. Still, the fear did not diminish, not in the slightest, because she knew that the worst was yet to come. Something terrible was happening to Raven, but as far as Star could tell, there was nothing she could do to help now. Without any better recourse, she simply finished dressing Raven's wound, and then remained seated at her bedside in silence, head hung low in shame. "I am sorry, Raven . . ." She whispered into the dead night, not knowing whether or not Raven would hear the apology, wherever it was that she was at. The alien girl remained in that position for the rest of the night and well into the morning, seated beside her friend's bed, head hung low, her hands lain on her legs and clenched very tightly closed. It was her fault this was happening, she just knew it.

It appeared that there was indeed more going on in her mind than Raven knew, because no matter how long she walked in the direction of the doorway out of her mind, it never grew any closer. Obviously that other creature had a considerable number of things in store for her, and wasn't planning on letting her go just yet. So, lacking any more energy to waste on a futile task, Raven sat down on the rocky pathway and checked the wound on her stomach. It had stopped bleeding of its own accord sometime ago, which indicated that someone in the real world had bandaged it.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about dying from neglect if she keeps me in here too long." The dark magus muttered gloomily, not finding much comfort in that fact. The sound of a booted footfall on the path behind her brought Raven instantly to her feet, hands glowing with dark power as she spun to face her foe. When she found that foe to be Robin, she almost dropped her guard, but her instincts remembered what her mind almost forgot, that Robin couldn't be here in her mind because she had hidden her meditation mirror after the fiasco with Beast Boy and Cyborg. "Go away." She told it quietly, violet eyes narrowed to focus only on whatever it was that was taking Robin's form, looking for even the slightest movement to indicate hostile intent. None came as the imposter simply stood there, staring blankly at Raven. After enough time and more than enough patience had been burned away, Raven simply fired off a pair of telekinetic bolts at the thing, and when they simply passed through without causing any harm at all, she sighed. "An illusion, she's toying with me." She muttered, before sitting back down, the fake Robin forgotten, though not for long.

"You know, Starfire and I are really happy together." The voice of Robin commented suddenly, causing Raven's head to toss a surprised glance in the direction of the illusion, before her eyes narrowed darkly. "We'll probably get married in a few years, when we get older." He added conversationally, transforming Raven's dark look into a full out glare.

"Shut up." She said quietly, getting to her feet as she did so.

"I know that sounds a little overly assured, but it's not like we're going to break up or anything, we love each other too much for that." Raven growled ever so faintly, not even looking at the illusion as she started walking, not even caring which direction she was going in, as long as it was away from the imposter Robin. But, unsurprisingly, it followed her. "I wonder what will have happed to you by that point?" It asked, actually taking a thoughtful posture as it did so. "Maybe you'll have gone insane, or be dead by your own hand before then." He showed little emotion at saying such horrible things, and Raven's impulses forced her to take the bait.

"Robin would never act this flippant about something this serious!" She accused, spinning about to face the illusionary Robin, who only laughed at her mockingly.

"Ha! You actually think that any of us care about you or what happens to you?" The illusionary Robin smirked. "You're more trouble that you're worth, dead or alive." The dark magus' jaw visibly clenched at that, and very quietly she whispered,

"Stop talking." The mirage seemed not to hear, though.

"You're always making Beast Boy feel bad for just being who he is, belittling Cyborg for his simple tastes, and you're trying to break Star and I up so you can have her when she doesn't even want yo- . . ." It was at that moment that Raven could stand no more, and physically leapt at the illusion of Robin.

"STOP TALKING!" Due to the figure being an illusion, though, she only managed to fly through it and tumble to the ground in a heap. As she clamored up onto her hands and knees, she felt a soft touch on the back of her head, and then her own voice whispered to her,

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Even before Raven's balled fists swung through the air behind her, the dark presence was gone, leaving her alone on the walkway, her cloak pooled about her on the ground as she remained on her hands and knees. The distinct sound of little droplets of liquid falling to the ground began to ring out through the emptiness of the mindscape, and after a few moments, the figure beneath the cloak curled up, and audible sobs came forth. And, in the far reaches of Raven's mind, the darkness itself smiled.


	5. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bird

**Chapter 5: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bird**

"Greetings, Raven, I apologize for taking so long in getting here, but I was having a difficult time deciding what to bring back with me" It was a strange thing that morning as Starfire returned to Raven's room after leaving to get herself some food, as well as other supplies that would be required for Raven's care. Strange because the Tamaranian girl spoke, conversationally even, but was obviously still aware of the situation, as she was unsurprised when Raven failed to say anything in response. Instead of doing anything that would have been expected, considering her behavior of the last few days, Starfire simply moved to Raven's bedside, seating herself in the chair there. "I hope that you are feeling better than you were last night, friend, as you seemed very frustrated then, and I know how unenjoyable that can be."

Her hand, after waving in the air for a few moments to equalize the temperature, slipped over Raven's forehead to feel for feverishness or other signs of discomfort, but found none. Another quick inspection beneath the blankets revealed that Raven had thankfully not accumulated any more wounds and that the previous injury to her stomach was healing well. Deftly, she slipped the bandages from Raven's body, throwing them into a nearby wastebasket without breaking stride, and then worked on slipping fresh ones around the ashen-skinned girl's mid-section. Lastly, she checked the IV bag beside Raven's bed, replaced it with a fresh one, and then checked the actual needle. Once all of this was done, Starfire's "chores" were essentially completely, and she was free to do with her comatose friend as she would.

"I am glad you are not more injured than you were when I left you before, Raven." She said, setting her hands comfortably in her lap as she did so. "I was very worried that something might happen to you while I was away, and that you might become injured even further because I was not here to take care of you." Star looked downwards just a little, a faint smile playing across her lips. "But I then remembered that you are Raven, you would not allow yourself to be defeated by something like this." She gestured expansively, and then brought the same hand she'd used for that movement in close, against her chest and over her heart. "I also remembered that blaming myself . . . my pessimistic attitude . . . they were not helping you to get better, which is why I am here now." She reached that same hand out to gently touch Raven's hand, and squeezed it reassuringly. "I am sure that you can pull through this, Raven."

Unsurprisingly, there was no visible response to what Starfire had said from the dark magus, but that had no effect at all on the warm smile of the Tamaranian girl. Instead, the crimson-haired Starfire only moved onto a new subject, deciding that even if it seemed ineffective, talking to Raven as she was simply felt like the right thing to do. "I do not think I told you of my immediate past when we were learning of each other to combat the Puppet King, did I?" She asked, leaning her head back slightly and setting her gaze skyward as she sifted her memories. "I was very confused and frightened when I first arrived on this planet. Everything was so strange, with everyone rushing about like Kaerian hornets in their hive, all speaking this utterly incomprehensible language called, 'English.' I truly had no idea at all concerning what to do next, it was all just so much to take in."

Starfire's smile returned in full at that point, having waned slightly due to the unhappy emotions of her previous memories. "But, as luck would have it, I walked past a building later in the day which exploded while I was doing so. I know that does not sound like the usual event that someone would call fortunate, and the explosion itself was not, really. What was important was the people that came to investigate the explosion, the Teen Titans. I found my home on your unusual planet that day, and they . . ." She paused for just a moment, and took Raven's hand in hers again. "You became my family, you and all of the others became my friends and family that day." Starfire squeezed Raven's hand once more and smiled, even though she only half felt like it as the other girl's hand lay cold and unresponsive in her grasp.

It had taken a certain amount of time for Raven to realize, but the reason she had not been able to get anywhere in her mind before was because that other her had been keeping her from moving. In a mind, physical existence is only a memory as are its laws, movement is not accomplished by physical propulsion as much as by subtle manipulations of subconscious projections. In other words, movement by purely physical means was impossible, and that Raven would have been able to "teleport" if she had wanted to, if it weren't for the demon's omni-present will blocking the mental response to those manipulations. If she focused hard enough, she could pierce the control and allow herself the ability to travel, though.

And thus she was walking along the end of the walkway which led to one of the largest solid pieces of rock within her mind, upon which sat the portal out of it. Truthfully, her appearance of "walking" was simply out of habit and exercise to focus her concentration, but that was a relatively moot point as she came onto the actual island in the sea of entropy. Even if the portal's physical exit lay with the mirror, it could still be used to escape from her mind, albeit with some difficulty, and was therefore Raven's best hope for waking herself up from the demon nightmare she currently existed in.

"That won't work, you know?" Raven's own voice called out to her, though without any discernable representation of substance.

"Of course it will, the mirror is a two-way portal, and I can still use it to escape, even if I didn't use it to get here in the first place." The dark magus retorted, looking about warily for any sign of the other, or one of her dangerous pets. The disembodied voice laughed mockingly in response.

"Of course, I know that to be true, but what I actually meant is that your plan won't work because you will never reach the portal." As the voice that was hers and yet not spoke, the stone beneath her very feet began to shake and rumble. "Your very own emotional demons will finish you off first!" With a sound like thunder, the rock just before Raven bucked up and split clean apart, and out from the gaping hole the event created slithered an absolutely hideous creature. Easily ten feet tall, the beast's legs were replaced by a huge, writhing mass of tentacles, and from there up only got worse, with a body covered in open mouths with viciously-sharp teeth, and huge, powerful looking arms with razor-sharp claws tipping each elongated finger of its hands. Atop its broad and muscular shoulders sat a rounded head similarly covered in gaping maws, as well as haphazardly placed, glowing red eyes, and lastly a head of thin, greasy black hair that hung down to the monster's neck.

"Great, just great." Raven muttered quietly, turning her body sideways to present a smaller target, while at the same time setting her legs wider apart and bending them at the knees just a little to lower her center of gravity. With a tremendous screeching roar from all of its mouths, the creature lunged at Raven, burying its claw in the stone where she had been standing just a moment before. Raven landed only three feet back from where she had been and immediately let her telekinetic energies take hold of the rocks displaced by the monster's attack, and sent them all rocketing up to smash into its head. The beast was unfazed by the strike, and simply swung for Raven with its free left claw, scratching three bloody gashes into her right arm even as she hopped back to evade it, and then followed it by throwing the large hunk of stone its right hand had ripped out of the ground with the movement of its body during the first strike.

The dark magus barely had enough time to form a barrier in the air before her to block the rock, and when the creature came charging in just behind it, she had little choice but to flee. She leapt with power buoying her rise, only to have the demon's hand catch around her ankle, an instant later sending her slamming to the ground. Before she could even form the coherent thought to escape, the monster was upon her, tentacles sliding over her ankles and taking hold to keep her from running, while its arms scythed in to rip her prone form to shreds. With what little mobility she still possessed, Raven managed to roll to the sides just ahead of each swipe, avoiding the brunt of the attacks, but still receiving a number of wounds in the process. Notably, though, she was also quietly chanting as she did so.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" Dark energy surged into the ground beneath the monstrosity, worming its way into every crack and crevice in the granite-like rock until it had a firm hold.Then two huge slabs of rock came ripping up from the ground around and beneath the beast, trapping it between their twin, crushing force as its arms came up to brace against them just in time. While the hideous creature was otherwise occupied, Raven slipped herself out of its grasp, and with a bit of a stumbling clumsy gait, managed to put some distance between herself and the beast. By the time she had turned around to face the monster it had already triumphed over her telekinetic control of the rocks, giving a great push which soundly broke both slabs from the ground. And, before her mind could even begin to form some sort of plan of attack, the horror had already wrenched one of the huge slabs over its head and thrown it at Raven.

"Azarath metrion zinthos!" The words came pouring from her lips, calling forth all the concentration she could muster in the few instants she had before the rock would crush her. In a tremendous outpouring of power, she just barely managed to halt the slab, only inches in front of her position. There was literally no time to celebrate, though, as the whole of the massive chunk of stone ripped apart before her, revealing the green-skinned fist of the monster, just one moment before it smashed into Raven's stomach with the force of a freight train. The crushing blow blasted the air and a considerable amount of blood right out of the girl's lungs, before sending her flying through the dark atmosphere of the mind realm, only to come down quite a distance away.

Raven shakily climbed up onto her hands and knees after impact, struggling to force breathe back into her empty lungs, despite her unresponsive diaphragm, and succeeded only just in time to fire off a bolt of telekinetic energy to slow the follow-up charge of the monster. The bolt had almost no effect on the demon's considerable momentum as it tore over the ground between them on its slithering, tentacle legs, though it did cause the creature's whole appearance to become fuzzy and indistinct for a moment. Raven blinked, trying to figure out whether her eyes were playing tricks on her and sending her false perceptions. Then she smiled, and shakily got back to her feet, standing tall and resolute in the face of the rush that the monster was making, cloak blowing out behind her in the curious wind of her mindscape.

The monster met Raven with a wail, so utterly discordant and inhuman that it caused the ashen-skinned girl physical pain, but she managed to make her attack regardless of the pain, unexpectedly leaping straight in at her foe. The move caused the double claw swipe the creature had been going for to miss entirely, and its glowing red eyes became quite large with fear when she landed smoothly on its chest and set her energy-charged hand on its forehead. With simply the willing of it, the creature's essence began to waver and shift, being drawn upwards into the palm of Raven's hand, being absorbed back into her being, just as it had been when she had first "fought" it. In the usual troublesome manner, though, the beast didn't plan to go without a fight, scrambling it's arms up to viciously slash at Raven's back with both claws, opening up a number of wounds there before its arms were finally drawn into Raven. The rest of the horrid demon followed in short order, and the battle was over, with Raven standing as the victor.

Without a word, she turned to head off in the direction of the portal, leaving the site of the battle behind her. But, only shortly after she did so, it quickly became apparent that the fight had taken quite a toll on her body, as her control of her limbs quickly slowed and then ceased almost altogether. With a resounding "thud," Raven collapsed face first into the ground, too weak to force her body to move in even the slightest way. She was done, she had fought as hard as she possibly could, more than she had ever believed she could, but now she had nothing left to give, no more will left to fight on with. It was time to just die.

Unexpectedly, her right hand grew quite warm, and she could somehow feel a heart beat against its warming skin, a fluttering, quick beat that suggested a dire, upset emotional state. And then she felt a drop of liquid on her cheek, seemingly impossible due to the fact that said cheek lay right against the cold turf of the rock island. And then she understood.

"That's right . . . if I died now . . . it would make Starfire cry, wouldn't it?" Raven murmured quietly into the dirt, before very slowly and very painfully forcing her arms and knees back underneath her, raising her form up from the ground. "I won't make her cry." One leg came solidly beneath, still bent to accommodate her position. "Not now . . ." The other foot came to be flat on the ground, supporting her weight as easily as ever. "Not ever." And she stood, tall and proud, staring out into the dark distance of the realm. "I will never make Starfire cry, and that means that I will not lose to you, you monster."

" . . . and that is how I came to learn that the 'washing' and 'drying' machines were only meant to clean clothes and not actual people." Starfire completed her tale of alien naiveté and misadventures with a smile and a little giggle, just the retelling of the amusing and embarrassing incident bringing a blush to her cheeks and more joy to her heart than she thought possible at that point in time. Sadly, though, her joy was fated to live only so long before . . . "Oh no!" The crimson-haired girl cried as she caught the sudden shift of color in the sheet over Raven's right arm. In a flash, Starfire had the comforter ripped off of the other girl's bed and thrown halfway across the room, revealing three ragged gashes in the skin of Raven's arm. Bandages and anti-septic came to hand, but only in time for Starfire to witness the ashen-skinned girl's body shaking terribly, like it had just been thrown against something with great force. Worse, it was only a moment after that even that multiple wounds began ripping themselves open all over Raven's upper body, sending little splashes of blood everywhere.

In an instant, Star had collected Raven in her arms and was flying her toward the medical bay in the Tower with all the speed she could manage, desperately trying to ignore the copious amounts of blood running down her stomach from all the phantom wounds on Raven, and from those still appearing. They reached the hospital's white-washed room in record time, Starfire gently placing her bleeding burden on the raised platform at one side of the room. Before she could activate the auto-care system, though, everything suddenly became very still, and the wounds stopped opening on the dark magus' body. Starfire leaned over Raven's head, looking down on her with a curious mix of hope and dread. Hope, that perhaps the onslaught had ceased because Raven had awakened, and dread that it had stopped because she had died.

The answer turned out to be neither Star's hope or fear, as Raven's body burst into a convulsion like movement, and then emptied its lungs with an explosive gasp, also "spitting" a large glob of blood onto the Tamaranian's face. With no time to lose, Starfire rushed to the computer console in the room and used the code Cyborg had shown her to activate the auto-care systems, which instantly released a whirlwind dance of automated machinery working to stabilize Raven's injured form while caring for all of her multiple wounds. It seemed to do so quite well, even taking care of the slashes over the dark magus' back as they appeared, but to Starfire's utter horror, it could not keep Raven's heart rate from slowly dropping off, even after stemming the blood flow and bringing in a transfusion of new blood. It was as if she had simply given up trying to survive, and was just waiting to die.

Starfire rushed to Raven's side, taking the girl's hand in both of hers and squeezing it as tightly as she possibly could.

"No, you must not die, Raven, I do not want to lose a friend, I do not want to lose you!" She clenched the captured hand close against her chest and over her heart. "Please, do not die, Raven, do not leave me." A single tear slipped from the Tamaranian's closed eyes, ran down her soft-skinned cheek, and then dropped from the edge of her curved jaw and onto Raven's pale cheek. As the sound of the beeps from the hear monitor slowly grew more frequent, Starfire opened her eyes, and though she could not manage a smile at that moment, she did whisper, "Thank you, friend."

It wasn't long before Raven found herself with yet another obstacle in her path, another illusion, but this time it was one of Beast Boy and Cyborg. Not at all in the mood for her other side's games and tricks, Raven simply moved straight on through, ignoring the illusions completely. Just as with the Robin illusion, though, the fake Beast Boy and Cyborg were quite persistent, and easily kept pace with her.

"You know, you really should just give up." The fake Cyborg said, gesturing helplessly.

"Seriously, do you actually think you can beat something that has the power of all your negative emotions?" The illusionary Beast Boy added, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "I don't think so!"

"Especially when it's _you_."

"Yeah, 'cause you're like . . . the queen of negativity!" The two acted much too much like the real Cyborg and Beast Boy for Raven's tastes, even having their annoying habit of working off one another when they tried to antagonize her.

"Besides, even if you somehow manage to beat Anbu, which totally isn't ever going to happen, it's not like you'd ever be able to get with Starfire."

"Nope, no chance of either happenin'." Almost imperceptibly, Raven clenched her hands beneath her cloak, but just as Raven could _see_ things without actually laying eyes on them while within her mindscape, the illusions knew everything that she did without ever needing to lay eyes on it.

"I mean, c'mon, just look at you!" The fake Beast Boy said, jumping in front of her and gesturing right on with both arms. "You look like you walked out of a black and white movie, for Pete's sake!"

"And just look at your legs, they're so scrawny they look like they belong on a chicken!" The illusionary Cyborg pointed out, while leaning down to point at Raven's exposed legs, causing her to give a little growl and attempt to kick at him, which naturally failed due to him not being real.

"And dude, seriously, just look at your face." The green-skinned annoyance held up a mirror, showing Raven her face, though the illusion within the mirror removed its somewhat haggard appearance from her previous trials. "Who could ever like anything that plain?"

"And you're not fooling anybody by sticking on that little 'chakra' thing of yours, it doesn't look exotic, it just looks stupid." Right down to the fact that Cyborg would probably use the wrong name for the gem itself her other side had those two numb-skulls represented perfectly, and it was seriously starting to get on Raven's nerves.

"It's not like you treat any of us well either, not even Starfire."

"You treat all of us like we're just _so_ beneath you."

"And in case you haven't noticed." For the barest moment, the illusion of Beast Boy became real, slipping up behind her to pull her cloak back and away to make her breasts more apparent. "You're kind of a girl, y'know?" With a growl of pure rage, Raven spun about and smashed the still barely real fake Beast Boy in the head with a vicious backhand, sending him tumbling away.

"That doesn't matter, Starfire would understand!" The illusionary Beast Boy looked at her with utter shock plastered over his features, the skin on the side of his face still quite red from the backhand. Cyborg took up the mantle in his place, though.

"She might understand, but there's no way she'd go against what's natural for her body, and especially not her **_love_** for Robin." Raven fairly burned with impotent rage, glaring at the two false images before her. The rage dissolved when she felt the twin touch of two hands, one on each of her shoulders, and a soft breath on the side of her head.

"I believe that this game is mine as well, so sorry for your loss." The emotion came roaring back into Raven the moment the hands left her shoulders, and she tried again to pull the same move she'd used against Beast Boy, but Anbu was already gone by the time her fist passed behind her, and by the time she turned back to her original facing, the illusions were gone as well.

"Dammit!" She shouted angrily, kicking at the ground beneath her several times, before finally calming herself and simply walking on. "I will get out of here, and I will be with Starfire." She whispered, her head lowering slightly. "I have to . . ."


	6. Mocking Bird

**Chapter 6: Mocking Bird**

Author's Notes: In response to BCS' (I adore your work, and I'm glad to have you as a fan ) questioning of Anbu's presence in the fic; on the FF.N copy, that is; I do have a rationale for this, but I wasn't planning on explaining such things until the sequel to Evermore. So, to anyone who doesn't feel like waiting until then, just drop me a line in my e-mail, and I'll happily explain things to you. Otherwise, just trust in the fact that I have my reasoning for Anbu being there instead of Trigon.

"Starfire . . ." Robin began, as he, Beast Boy, and Cyborg all stood behind the Tamaranian girl's seat at the side of Raven's bed. Starfire cut him off, though,

"Yes, what is it, Robin?" She sounded like her usual cheerful self then, but there was a certain little quaver in her voice which betrayed the ultimate truth of the matter, and all three caught it.

"Star, you've got to take a break from this, you're falling apart." Starfire blinked, and then shook her head angrily.

"I am **not** falling apart, I am- . . ." She stopped there as an octopus Beast Boy grabbed her head in a number of tentacles and stopped it from moving, before forcing her to look at a mirror a another tentacle was holding up.

"Dude, you've still got Raven's blood on your face from **yesterday**, how can you say nothing is wrong?" Starfire made a sound of annoyance and wrenched her head free from Beast Boy's tentacles, causing the green-skinned Titan to stumble back to his place beside the other boys. Cyborg stepped up to the plate next.

"I've been looking through the security footage, and I haven't seen you even lay down for a nap." As Cyborg spoke, the lines and creases around the edges of Star's eyes, as well as the deep bags beneath them, grew all the more pronounced. "And those cameras tell me that you stopped eating after yesterday too." Starfire's stomach started into a growl at the word, "eating," but a quick, utterly vicious glare from the Tamaranian down at her stomach silenced it before it got far.

"And you're scared out of your wits, just look at you, you're shaking even now..." Robin said quietly, as he reached to touch Starfire's quivering shoulder, hoping to calm her somehow through physical contact, but before he could even lay a finger upon her, Star leapt into the air and just barely managed to float at that point.

"Yes, I have not slept for the last two days, and the last meal I had was consumed yesterday morning. I have not had the time to cleanse myself or my uniform of Raven's blood and I am scared, and rightfully so!" With righteous indignation substituting for fitness and health, she launched off into what was obviously going to be another of her lectures, though this one was going to be considerably more angry than any of those that came before. "How can you sleep at night while you know that our friend lies in this bed, unable to wake up from the hellish nightmare she is trapped in, bursting out in inexplicable wounds with no visible assailant to blame for their appearance? How can you just go about as if everything is normal, as if Raven is not suffering?" She yelled in both frustration and confusion, actually asking her fellow heroes for an answer just as much as stating her beliefs.

The three boys looked down slightly, ashamed, and then Robin sighed quietly.

"Because we don't know what to do to help her, Star." Cyborg nodded, gesturing to all of the medical equipment scattered about the room.

"I've done everything I know how to do for her, there's nothing left but to just go on and hope things turn out good."

"And we've already looked everywhere for her mirror." Beast Boy added, bringing Starfire's attention to him.

"Mirror?" She asked, having never been told the truth about what happened the day Raven, Cyborg, and Beast Boy had all disappeared. "What assistance could a reflective surface be of in this situation?" Before Beast Boy could answer, Robin gave his own two cents.

"It would help by showing you how horrible you look, so you'd stop being so stubborn and listen to your friends." Starfire ignored the boy wonder's words, instead focusing on Beast Boy and the information he had that she lacked.

After a few moments of having her intense, almost glowing, stare bore into his resolve, and despite the disapproving glare Robin was shooting him, Beast Boy cracked.

"Raven has a mirror that works like a . . . portal, into her mind, we used it that day after we fought Dr. Light and Raven started acting weird."

"Like BB already said, we looked everywhere and couldn't find it." Cyborg interjected, before Starfire could get her hopes too far up, and Robin followed suit easily.

"Since there's nothing more any of us can do, why don't you at least take a break, Starfire, you need it." Without saying a word, Star quietly returned to her seat at Raven's bedside, and then finally gave her answer.

"You are wrong." Robin's features twisted in agony at that response, even though it wasn't entirely unexpected.

"Starfire- . . ." With no patience left, the Tamaranian did not wait for him to finish speaking.

"You may not believe there is anything more you can do for Raven, but I **know** that there is something I can do for Raven, something I must do." The crimson-haired girl gently brought her hands up from her lap, placing them precisely over her heart. "I know it in the same manner that I know she will come back to us, I know these things because my heart tells me so." She smiled ever so faintly without looking back at the others, and after a glance between all three male Titans, followed by a mutually shared and understood head shake of negation. It was only a few moments later that the room was once again only occupied by it comatose owner and her nurse, at which point the haggard Tamaranian went through her normal routine of examination on her patient.

While doing so, Starfire found Beast Boy's mention of Raven's mirror nagging at her mind, and once her checks were complete and the ashen-skinned girl was found to be no worse than usual, Starfire began to search for the mirror. Perhaps, if she could find it, she could use it to enter Raven's mind and find out what was wrong, possibly even fix what it was . . .

Though it did so quite slowly, the mountain at the center of the island drew ever closer, and it was that very mountain that housed the exit out of her mind. It grew on the still faraway horizon, rising up high into the open sky as she closed the distance to it. The whole time Raven did so, she was fully on her guard, watching warily for any sign of an approaching monster while her ears remained pricked for even the slightest sound of her voice, of Anbu's voice. Neither thing ever came, before the glowing gateway was within sight, only a short dash away from her current position. What sound her sharp ears did catch, though took her completely by surprise.

"Raven!" Her name was spoken by a cheery, energetic voice, one that she had heard calling her name out in the sweetest of her dreams.

She turned to face in the direction the voice had originated from, caught sight of the crimson hair that she so adored flying about behind the head of its owner, and then felt herself being born to the ground by a strong form. When the dust thrown up by her rather violent descent to the ground cleared, Raven found herself held tightly in the arms of Starfire. At first, the dark magus was utterly dumbfounded by the appearance of her teammate, but as soon as her mind hurdled the initial shock, those emotions shifted into suspicion. Her darker side had already demonstrated its proficiency at creating exceedingly life-like illusions of her friends, and Starfire's sudden appearance in her mind seemed much too convenient, now that she was so close to her goal.

Her mind set that the . . .thing, on top of her was not really Starfire, Raven did not even respond as she pushed the other female off of her and quickly regained her feet. Without even giving a second glance back at the imposter, Raven walked on towards the portal, braced for the inevitable storm of attempts to slow her and keep her from escaping the trap. When no such attempts came, though, Raven found doubt eating at her resolve, causing her steps to slow, and then finally cease altogether. She looked back over her shoulder, and found the "imposter's" position unchanged, kneeling on the ground with the very same dismayed and slightly hurt look in her eyes that Starfire always displayed when her attempts at befriending Raven were denied. It made Raven's heart ache every time she saw that emotion in the emerald eyes of the Tamaranian girl, ever since she had realized her love for the alien, and even before that to a point, though she had refused to admit it at the time.

For the first time in Raven's life, for as far back as she could recall, when her mind and heart clashed over what she should do in the situation, whether or not it was the real Starfire, her heart won out.

"Starfire . . ." She said, turning about to face what she had decided was the real deal. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so callous, it's just that this place . . ." She gestured helplessly with her arms, unable to find the words to properly convey the trials she had faced within the domain, within her very own mind.

At the acknowledgment, Starfire smiled gleefully, and returned to a normal, standing posture.

"It is all right, Raven, I can only guess at what horrid forms of mental torture you must have faced up to this point." She moved closer to Raven, and looked to be about to snatch up the ashen-skinned girl in an embrace, before she restrained herself, instead simply clasping her hands before her and smiling even wider.

"It's alright, but how did you get here?" Raven queried, inclining her head back just slightly so she could look the taller girl in the face.

"I used your meditation mirror, Beast Boy informed me of its power and once I knew of it, I wanted to waste no time in coming to your aid." The crimson-haired alien blinked then, as if a forgotten thought had just suddenly occurred to her again, and began to look about the emptiness of Raven's mindscape curiously. "I am confused, though," she said, before bringing her gaze back to Raven, bewilderment coloring her expression strongly. "Where are the hordes of menacing, four-eyed beasts of pure darkness?" Raven chuckled slightly, finding a certain dark humor in Starfire expecting her mind to be filled with vicious monsters of shadow.

"I don't think there are things like that in here, Starfire, otherwise I would have met them by now, considering how close we are to the portal out of my mind . . ." It was Raven's turn to blink in revelation then, as the mention of the nearly forgotten portal made her realize that she and Starfire could just as easily continue conversing _outside_ of her mind, in considerably greater safety, no less.

Suddenly, all the dangers presented by her other half, by Anbu, which had faded from notice in the face of the object of Raven's affections, came rushing back to the forefront of Raven's mind, and like a frightened gazelle on the plains of the Serengeti, she bolted. It only took a moment for the violet-haired mage to realize that Starfire was not following her, and against the better judgment of her instincts, Raven forced herself to stop running and look back at Starfire.

She found herself staring at the Tamaranian still standing in the very same spot, eyes so wide that they were almost round, and gazing outward sightlessly, not registering anything before them. It was then that Raven's horrified eyes noted the tiny trickle of blood running from the corner of the girl's mouth, as well as the frozen and on edge posture that ran throughout the alien's whole body, as if she had just been jolted unexpectedly. In that instant, the dark magus' sharp gaze fell upon Starfire's chest, where, amid a faint wash of blood, a black dagger tip protruded. It vanished as soon as it was spotted, and Raven looked back up at the girl's face, just in time to see the last spark of life fade from the emerald depths of Starfire's eyes.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" The scream, the vehement denial utterly suffused with the agony of loss and endless grief, ripped its way free of Raven's throat. Like a puppet with its strings cut, Starfire's lifeless body crumpled to the ground, its crimson hair flying in the air one last time, but without the flash of life in the movement, it seemed little more than a mockery of its former beauty. The assassin, now revealed due to her victim's collapse to the ground, was the black-cloaked Raven, the other half of Raven's dark self, the monster that called itself Anbu.

With tears streaming down her cheeks, Raven rushed to her fallen love, snatching the girl's body up in her arms as soon as it came into reach, desperately hoping to find some sign that the Tamaranian was not truly dead. Her fragile hope shattered, as she found the alien's flesh already devoid of all warmth that it had possessed in life, an irrefutable sign of Starfire's demise. With another anguished, and this time, incoherent cry, Raven pulled the corpse as close as possible and began to sob into the silky, dark-red hair of her friend, of her secret love.

Anbu remained silent for another few moments, simply smiling down upon the scene of despair and sorrow lain at her feet, and then ultimately made a sound, clearing her throat rather noisily. The sound did as intended, piercing through the waves of suffering clouding Raven's mind to remind her of the other's presence. Raven's head snapped up, her violet eyes blazing with fury beyond anything they had ever held before, but the black-cloaked Raven simply looked amused at what she glimpsed in her double's eyes, inflaming Raven's rage even further. Finally, the cruel woman spoke.

"Now, don't you wish you'd hidden that stupid mirror?" The words shot through Raven's being like an electric current, and suddenly another forgotten fact leapt to the forefront of Raven's mind.

"I did hide it." She whispered, eyes wide with comprehension, and in that moment, the illusion of Starfire vanished from existence. Still, Anbu's vicious smile remained.

"Don't worry, I plan to reenact that little drama with the real Starfire, just as soon as I'm in control of your body." With a growl of pure wrath, Raven threw herself at Anbu, hands clenched into talons that ripped through the air for the monster's face, seeking to tear into its flesh. The black-cloaked demon only smiled, though, and then struck out.

Despite meticulous searching of the entirety of Raven's room, looking in every last nook and cranny she could find, Starfire was left empty-handed. So, with a considerable amount of trepidation, Starfire left Raven's room to go searching for the mirror elsewhere in the tower. Despite the brave front she'd shown the boys, Starfire was not nearly so assured of Raven's safe return. It was true that she felt in her heart that Raven would come back to them, but equally true was Starfire's knowledge that there was something she had to do for Raven before the nightmare would end. Hence, her fervent search for the item which might well be the key to her friend's salvation.

Sadly, her investigation of most of the rest of the tower remained just as fruitless, leaving only one stone unturned, Starfire's own room.

"My living space would be the last place any one would think to search in for a possession of Raven's . . ." Star convinced herself, justifying the remainder of the thus far pointless search, as every second she spent away from Raven was another second that her friend could be bleeding to death. Starfire entered her domicile in a slow float, but her spirits fell immediately, as there was almost nowhere in her room that such an item could be hidden, with her closet and the underside of her bed being the only likely spots at all. The former was very small, and contained nothing more than the girl's clothing, leaving nowhere but in the clothes themselves to hide it, and that was much too simple of a hiding place to discover. And the latter, well, the latter was too ridiculous to even consider, the very thought of Raven sneaking into her room and then tossing the mirror under her bed would have made Starfire laugh, if the situation weren't so grave.

The Tamaranian's shoulders slumped once again in defeat, and with a slow turn in the air, she prepared to leave and return to Raven's bedside. That is, until her eye caught the flash of reflected golden light off of an object on her bed. The light had come from the gilded tracery on the spine of a book, in fact, the very book Raven had given Starfire on the night after their recent battle with Mammoth. The alien girl had left there after using one of its many fanciful tales to soothe her troubled mind the night before the current horror began, so that she could sleep. Gently, Star retrieved the ancient manuscript, treating it with great care both because of its obvious age, and because it was a gift from Raven.She read its title, embossed in flowing gold lettering on the cover, "Once Upon a Time . . . A Collection of Children's Stories, Folktales, and most of all, Fairytales." Tenderly, Starfire cradled the tome in her arms, staring off into nothing for a moment as a thought occurred to her. Perhaps . . . it was difficult for the crimson-haired alien to muster much hope or faith then, but perhaps the book, and the stories it contained within, was what she needed to save Raven.

With tentative hope fluttering in her heart, Starfire left her room and headed off for Raven's, clutching the fairytale collection close to her chest, and praying that she had found the answer.


	7. Beauty and the Beast

**Chapter 7: Beauty and the Beast**

With a grunt of pain, Raven went flying away from her darkened mirror image, a livid red mark growing on her cheek and still sizzling with the dark energies of telekinesis.

"You know this is the best way, because it's obvious that I'm the better of us." Raven, growling at both the insult and the stinging of her cheek from Anbu's powerful slap, threw her hands forward and sent a large chunk of rock torn straight from the ground hurtling toward the black cloaked figure. "I'm stronger . . ." She said with a horrid smile, breaking Raven's control on the boulder with an easy wave of her hand and then sending it right back at the dark magus just as easily, a move Raven just barely managed to avoid with a telekinetically enhanced leap. "I'm faster . . ." Even as the perversion of her voice reached her ears, Raven found Anbu directly before her, and felt a savage blow smash into her stomach, before she went tumbling back to the ground. "And I know the nature of _our_ power far better than you do." She landed a scant three feet from Raven, and in her outstretched hand appeared a vicious blade of telekinetic energy, a hideous sword shaped with the images of demons and monsters scattered across its twisted form.

She closed the distance to Raven's fallen form with slow, leisurely steps, before setting the razor-edge of her black blade right over the girl's cowled head.

"So, why don't you be a good little girl and give up now, I promise to take very good care of you and your former body." She waited in silence as Raven gave no answer, remaining still on the ground with her face hidden from view by her hood. Finally, the black-cloaked demon's patience ran thin. "Well, Raven dear, what do you plan to do?" In a flash of darkness, Anbu's sword and the dark mirror-image herself were blown back and away from Raven's prone form. As the bubble of seething telekinetic energies receded, the dark magus slowly climbed back to her feet, eyes glowing white through the black light all around her, and cape flowing out behind her quite dramatically. Even after the globe had completely receded and there was no sign of continued use of her power, her eyes continued to glow utterly white.

"I won't lose." For a moment, Anbu looked truly surprised at Raven's sudden display of unbridled power, but the expression quickly faded into a feral, anticipative smile.

"I'm glad you think so, Raven dear, because that will just make it all the more satisfying when I **break** you." Raven spoke no words in response, only raised one hand from her side, right before a sword of dark energy sprang to life in her hand, forging itself into a double-edged, straight-bladed shape through the force of her will. The two weapons met in another instant, crackling as their powers clashed with one another, and just over their hard cross vied the intangible forces of Anbu and Raven's personalities and wills. Both strained against one another, swords causing a constant shriek of pseudo-metal on the same, as each razor cutting edge scraped over the other, falling back and pressing forward in a virtual dance, one never gaining the advantage for long before it was taken back.

That is, until the light flickered in Raven's eyes, and her sword faded from existence, removing the resistance to Anbu's sword and causing the deadly blade to come scything in at Raven's chest. She threw herself back from the attack, but still received a horrid cut across her right shoulder for the effort. Landing hard not far from her foe, Raven stared up in confusion as the sword-wielding demon advanced on her.

"Did I forget to mention earlier that I'm also considerably more intelligent and cunning, Raven dear?" She took another step toward her blue-cloaked quarry, letting her sword hang loosely at her side as she chuckled darkly. "You're been playing my little game for the last three days, and not only did my little minions weaken you, but your mind has been getting none of the benefits of all the sleeping your body has been doing." Her chuckle turned into a harsh, grating laugh even as she spoke. "You don't have the mental strength left to face me, much less _defeat_ me!" Raven knew the words Anbu spoke to be true, feeling the fatigue of such a long time spent with "rest" quite suddenly and in its entirety. She no longer even felt the strength to lift her arm, and concentration was far beyond what remained of her weakened willpower.

Through all of this, though, whispered the promise Anbu had made earlier, the promise to murder Starfire when Raven lost control of her body. She drew strength from that knowledge, finding hidden depths of power she had never known to lay within her. She would not hurt Star, nor would she allow her to be hurt, no matter what. In a surge, the blazing white of Raven's power returned to her eyes, as did the magical blade she had formed before, and, with an intentional lack of speed, she levitated back to her feet.

"I'm impressed, even without my power bolstering you, and all the fatigue from my plot, you can still muster the power to pretend an opposition." Anbu jibed, slowly raising her own blade into a relatively relaxed defensive position. "You're more like me than I'd though, Raven dear." The dark magus' eyes narrowed only slightly, and her voice rang out.

"Do you know the main difference between us?"

"What?"

"You talk too much." And, with a focusing yell, Raven came roaring in at Anbu, blade leading.

"A name had now to be found for the royal babe; and the King and Queen, after talking over some scores of names, at length decided to call her Aurora, which means The Dawn. The Dawn itself (thought they) was never more beautiful than this darling of theirs." Starfire smiled warmly as she read the words from the heavily worn book to her friend, and briefly moved the tome aside so she could look directly at Raven. "Is that not wonderful, parents having the opportunity to bestow their child with such a beautiful name?" She looked at Raven in silence, not really waiting for an answer as much as simply examining her, as curious currents of electricity began to squirm their way through the alien's brain. "I wonder, why did your parents choose to identify you with your name, friend?" She reached out, and gently pulled the comforter lain over Raven's body a little higher, tucking her in. "Certainly, it fits your current personality, but your parents could not have known that it would be so when they held you in their arms as a newborn, could they?"

For a moment, the crimson-haired Tamaranian tried to imagine her mysterious friend and teammate as a baby, but found herself unable to do so, as everything that she considered seemed so utterly "un-Raven" that it wouldn't fit. Even taking into account the fact that introverts like Raven were made so by their environment and experiences and not born as such, Starfire could still not wrap her imagination around the concept of a care-free, smiling and giggling miniature version of the girl, the very idea was almost ridiculous to her. To get herself off of her relatively dead-end train of thought, Starfire opened the nearly forgotten book to its former position and began to read again, while it lay in her lap.

"The next business, of course, was to hold a christening. They agreed that it must be a magnificent one; and as a first step they invited all the Fairies they could find in the land to be godmothers to the Princess Aurora; that each one of them might bring her a gift, as was the custom with Fairies in those days, and so she might have all the perfections imagin-AH!" Her quiet reading was cut off quite suddenly as a small splatter of blood spread itself across the page she had been reading from, causing Starfire to scream in both surprise and horror.

She raised her eyes to Raven's form, and found a relatively small; compared to the previous wounds she had received, at least; gash open on the ashen-skinned girl's shoulder, from which poured a small flow of blood onto the mattress and comforter beneath her. Even as Starfire closed the tome to free herself to tend to Raven, she found that her left hand absolutely refused to let go of the book, or even to move her index finger from its position, holding the page that she had just been reading. And so, once she had stanched the flow of blood from the wound and then finished tying the towel she had been using around Raven's arm as a makeshift bandage with her teeth and free hand, she considered the fairytale collection in her lap. No matter how hard she tried, her hand refused to let go of the manuscript, ignoring all orders her brain sent it to do so.

Only one possibility existed for why it would do that, and so, after taking a moment to steady herself, Starfire opened the collection back up, and continued reading aloud.

"After making long inquiries - for I should tell you that all this happened not so many hundred years ago, when Fairies were already growing somewhat scarce - they found seven. But this again pleased them, because seven is a lucky number." Even as Starfire read, her lime and emerald eyes caught sight of a darkening spot in Raven's comforter, and without her eyes truly leaving the page or her mouth ceasing its oration, her hands moved to remove the blanket. It came away with a minimum of effort, revealing a light wound in the dark magus' side. Almost comically, Starfire went about bandaging the wound while still reading. "After the ceremonies of the christening, while the trumpeters sounded their fanfares and the guns boomed out again from the great tower, all the company returned to the Royal Palace to find a great feast arrayed. Seats of honor had been set for the seven fairy godmothers, and before each was laid a dish of honor, with a dish-cover of solid gold, and beside the dish a spoon, a knife, and a fork, all of pure gold and all set with diamonds and rubies." Yet another injury made itself known, a ragged slice along the inside of Raven's left leg, which swiftly carved its way down from just below her knee to three-fourths of the way to her ankle, where it then curved inward and away from her shin bone before finally stopping.

The leg was bandaged and the reading continued, though Starfire was growing more apprehensive with each new wound. What if she was wrong? What if Raven died because she was too busy reading pointless stories to truly help her? Somehow, though, the concerns could not truly stick, only hanging in her nervous mind and whispering, but not actually forcing her to change what she was doing. She simply kept doing her best while reading to Raven, and hoped.

"But, just as they were seating themselves at the table, to the dismay of every one there appeared in the doorway an old crone, dressed in black and leaning on a crutched stick. Her chin and her hooked nose almost met together, like a pair of nut crackers, for she had very few teeth remaining; but between them she growled to the guests in a terrible voice: 'I am the Fairy Uglyane!'"

Swords crossed again and again as Raven and Anbu fought across the whole of the island battlefield, tearing over the ground while power exploded all around them. Raven's blade came slashing in from the right, but Anbu's was inevitably there to meet it, and even the riposte' thrust to the black-cloaked demon's return cut was dodged. Thus far, Raven had been unable to injure Anbu in any significant manner, though the dark mirror-image had notably also been unable to strike any more blows against the dark magus' person.

"Give up yet, Raven dear?" Anbu called snidely to her other self, producing a growl of indignation and a powerful two-handed swing from her foe. It was blocked with only a minimum of difficulty, but the lightning-quick kick Raven followed the blow with smashed solidly into Anbu's stomach, blowing her back a few feet.

"Just getting started." Raven called to her quietly, her voice falling into its normal, neutral tone. Letting loose her own growl, the black-cloaked girl launched herself into a thrust of preternatural quickness, one which Raven only barely managed to dodge by dancing to the side and throwing her arm out. Instead of receiving a fatal evisceration, the attack simply sliced a small wound in Raven's left side, leaving her more than capable of a counter-attack, easily continuing her spinning dodge through and bringing her sword in hard at Anbu's head. The dark mirror-image barely managed to leap aside before the razor-edge of her opponent's blade would have split her skull in two, but she still took a hard cut across the shoulder as she escaped.

_" . . . himself infinitely obliged to the good Fairy Hippolyta, could not help feeling that hers was but cold comfort at the best. He gave orders . . . "_

The evasion became a very painful roll to the side, which left a trail of blood across the ground and Anbu in a crouch several feet distant from Raven, breathing hard and glaring at the ashen-skinned girl with all four blood-red eyes. "So, what happened to those remarks about me not standing a chance against you?" Raven asked calmly, a small smirk quirking up the corner of her lips. The black-cloaked demon continued to do nothing more than attempt to catch her breath and glare at Raven, giving no answer.

As Raven carefully watched her opponent, in the back of her mind, tucked away in the most primal part of her senses, something twinged. Before she even had time to react, something very large smashed into her back with immense force, sending her crashing to the ground in a heap, rubble scattered all over her back. With a smile, Anbu climbed back to her feet and languidly made her way over to Raven's prone form. After clearing some of the fragments of the boulder she had smashed Raven with from the girl's back, she let loose a triumphant laugh, and then mockingly spoke to her.

"A word to the wise, learn to tell the difference between feigned weakness and the real thing. Raven _dear_." The patronizing lecture was immediately followed by Anbu taking her sword in a double-overhand grip and going for the killing blow in a single swing, aiming to cut Raven clean in half at the waist. At the very last moment, Raven's eyes snapped open and in a spectacularly quick roll, she flipped onto her back and brought her own blade up, just barely stopping Anbu's only inches above her body. "Just give up, there's no way you can beat me." The dark mirror-image said through gritted teeth, putting even more force behind her sword to take advantage of her superior position. Raven had little choice, in a relatively difficult position to defend from, only barely fending off her darker side's sword due to her other hand holding the flat of the blade near the tip, but even so, she twisted her body just a little to the side . . .

_". . . such numbers that the poor Princess Aurora would have been hard put to it for fresh air could fresh air . . ."_

"Aren't you getting tired of fighting, tired of having to deal with everything in your dark little life?" She whispered surprisingly softly, almost catching the dark magus off-guard.

But Raven's will was adamant.

"I will **_NOT_** make Starfire cry!" One well-placed kick punctuated the girl's cry, slamming solidly into Anbu's right leg and knocking the limb right out from under her. A fast roll to the side once the lock was broken took Raven out from under the falling Anbu; though the red-eyed demon's sword carved a long, curving line in Raven's leg even as she did so; and a swing of her blade to her right almost took the demon's head off, but a similar roll put her just far enough away to avoid decapitation. Her follow up, and rather nimble, spring almost took Raven by surprise, but a jerk of her head put it out of the path of her foe's stab. Already knowing that removing the sword from the ground where it was embedded would be a time consuming chore anyway, Anbu simply let it vanish from existence, instead opting to materialize a set of long, black-energy formed claws and dove for Raven.

_". . . find a passage through the briars and brambles. The Prince could not tell which to believe of all these informants . . ."_

Her first swipe cute four lines across Raven's face, though the wounds were ultimately superficial, and the second was stopped with difficulty on the cross-guard of Raven's sword. The dark magus did not wait for another attack from Anbu's free claw, instead simply throwing herself bodily at the dark mirror-image, flipping them over and completely reversing their positioning.Now it was Raven's turn to stab at her foe, opening up a number of bleeding wounds in the demon's flesh while blockingall of the attacks made against her with that very same weapon. Finally, Anbu screamed in rage and indignation, fairly erupting with telekinetic force and sending Raven flying through the air. She landed; or rather smashed, into a large cropping of rocks; quite ungently, and only managed to shakily get to her feet with considerable effort.

Besides getting back to her own feet, Anbu had not moved an inch from where she and Raven had wrestled, the ashen-skinned girl noted. But, to her great dismay, the four-eyed demon fairly swam in a sea, a fog of savage, uncontrollable power, which crackled with menace and pure force.

"I tried to get you to come quietly, Raven dear, I tried to make you give up this pointless battle and just go to the back of **my** mind so that you wouldn't have to be destroyed, but if that's the way you want it, then fine." The fog spread and thickened, and in only a few moments Anbu's who body had vanished completely from sight within it, save her four, glowing red eyes. "You had your chance to survive, and you threw it away, so everything that happens from now on is on your head alone." the darkness gathered together, almost like a living creature, and then struck out as a whole mass, slamming Raven hard in the chest and knocking her right back to the ground face down.

_". . . court was silent, dreadfully silent; yet it was by no means emp . . ."_

Weakly, the dark magus tried to sit up from her prone position, managing to get her chest a few inches off of the hard rock before a heavy, cold boot fell forcefully on to her back, crushing her back down into the dirt. "Good bye, Raven dear." The harsh, and utterly sub-zero words reached Raven's ears, just before the sound of an unbelievably sharp blade literally cutting through the air reached them, and her eyes went wide.

Raven looked utterly horrible. Scratches had appeared across her face, and Starfire could also see a large bruise creeping up her shoulders, and none of her other wounds had stopped bleeding yet. Not only that, but she was growing even more pale, and was starting to look both sickly and exhausted. Still, though, Starfire read on.

"He stepped by them and passed across a second great court paved with marble; he mounted a broad flight of marble steps leading to the main doorway; he entered a guardroom, just within the doorway, where the guards stood in rank with shouldered muskets, every man of them asleep and snoring his best. He made his wa- . . ." Quite suddenly, a single, very shallow cut appeared on Raven's shoulder, not even deep enough to cause more than a drop or two of blood to spill forth, and so Starfire tried to ignore it. "Way, though a number of rooms filled with ladies and gentlemen, some standing, others sitting, but all asleep. He drew aside a heavy purple curtain, and once more held his breath; for he was looking into the great Hall of Senate where, at a long table, sat and slumbered the King with his council." Almost instantly, another twenty or so wounds flashed into existence on Raven's arms and shoulders, exactly the same as the first and only slightly more dangerous due to their quantity, but still a frightening reminder that Raven might well be fighting for her very life at that moment. Her voice and resolve quavered slightly as she went on, but she did so none the less.

"The Lor- . . . Lord Chancellor slept in the act of dipping pen into inkpot, the Archbishop in the act of taking snuff, and between the spectacles on the Archbishop's nose and the spectacles on the Lord Chancellor's a spider had spun a beautiful web. Prince Florimond tiptoed very carefully past these August sleepers and, leaving the hall by another door, came to the foot of the grand staircase. Up this, too, he went; wandered along a corridor to his right, and, stopping by hazard at one of the many doors, opened it and looked into a bathroom lined with mirrors and having in its midst, sunk in the floor, a huge round basin of whitest porcelain wherein a spring of water bubbled deliciously." With a horrible sound of flesh ripping apart and blood spraying forth, a rather large slash appeared in Raven's right calf, soaking the immediate area of the bed in no time at all.

Tension mounted in Starfire with every moment, as she tried to treat the injury as best she could while still reading the story to Raven. It seemed almost ridiculous for Starfire to be acting as she was, reading a silly little book when she should be doing her utmost to take care of Raven, and indeed, every rational part of the alien girl's brain was screaming at her to put the stupid thing down and focus on tending to her friend. Somehow, though, she simply _knew_ that even just stopping to take care of Raven with her full attention as each new wound arose was a mistake. And so, she read on, even as she was stanching the flow of blood from the ashen-skinned girl's leg.

"Three steps le-AH- . . . led down to the bath, and at the head of them stood a couch, with towels, and court-suit laid ready, exquisitely embroider-Unf . . ." With difficulty, Starfire kept on, even as she bent her head and clamped her teeth down on the bandage end to help tie it. "Emfroidered an complede do dhe daindiesd of lace fruffles and dhe mosd delicade of body linen." Almost as soon as she fixed one difficulty, another showed itself, as was evidenced by the way that Raven's body looked to be fighting for breath, and even as Starfire's hand lay on the other girl's leg, she could feel an almost supernatural tension in the bone, as if it was about to snap. "Raven . . ." Starfire almost whimpered, as tears came to her eyes.

She felt so unbelievably helpless, as her friends body was virtually tearing itself to pieces before her eyes, and there was nothing tangible that she could do about it. With no other recourse, she returned to the only thing she had that even _felt_ like it might help, the collection.

"Tha- . . ." With one slightly shaking hand, Starfire briefly reached up to wipe at her eyes, and let the words slip from her mouth in an attempt to calm herself. "Focus, find your center . . ." It stilled her for a moment, and though she was still quite in turmoil, it gave her enough strength to go on. "Then the Prince bethought him that he had ridden far before ever coming to the wood; and the mirrors told him that he was also somewhat travel-stained from his passage through it. So, having by this time learnt to accept any new wonder without question, he undressed himself and took a bath, which he thoroughly enjoyed." Quite suddenly, Raven's whole body seemed to "hop" in the bed, as if it had been struck with immense force from behind, and the smallest, barest of sounds escaped from behind her lips, one of such primal and complete agony that it didn't even require input from the brain to be made.

Starfire's heart skipped a beat, and for a moment, she could do nothing more than stare at Raven's body in abject horror, waiting, hoping, praying, for the ashen-skinned girl's chest to rise again, to draw in breath and indicate her continued existence as a living being. For an eternity that lasted only a handful of moments, Starfire sat and watched her charge with wide, unblinking eyes, fear and despair growing and mounting within the alien until it almost felt as though it was gnawing away at her inside. Eventually, though, Raven's body breathed again, and Star let a wan, weak smile of relief slip onto her face, though it vanished only a moment later. With shaking, sweat-covered hands, the crimson-haired alien lifted the fairytale collection up out of her lap and brought it closer to her face, as she was having a difficult time seeing by that point, and read on.

"N-nor, was he altogether astonished, when he tried on the clothes, to find that they fitted him perfectly. Even the rosetted shoes of satin might have been made to his measure." As Starfire spoke, Raven's body trembled, as if it had been struck, but when no actual wound appeared, Starfire resigned herself to being unable to help, and lifted the tome a little higher, so she could not see her friend's shaking body as much, and could better concentrate on her reading. "Having arrayed himself thus hardily, he resumed his quest along the corridor. The very next door he tried opened on a chamber all paneled with white and gold; and there, on a bed the curtains of which were drawn wide, he beheld the loveliest vision he had ever seen: a Princess, seemingly about seventeen or eighteen years old, and of a beauty so brilliant that he could not have believed this world held the like." With a spontaneity that startled Starfire; so much so that she nearly tore the fragile book she held in half; Raven's body moved once again on the bed, leaping up far enough to actually smash the girl's skull against the headboard with a loud "crack." Afterwards, she simply lay where she had fallen, her breathing having become extremely shallow, and beneath the alien's fingers, as she held Raven's wrist in the manner Cyborg had instructed her, the blood only pulsed through Raven's veins and arteries weakly and erratically.

Starfire wanted to run, and not even while carrying Raven to the infirmary anymore. She simply wanted to run away and hide, covering her ears and closing her eyes to block out everything else in the world so that she could just forget it all. But she could not do that, Starfire knew that no matter what, Raven would die if she did nothing, and she could not allow that to happen. She had only two choices, to rush Raven to the infirmary and hope that the machines there could save her, or continue reading to her. The only rational choice was to take her to the infirmary, but that hidden, intangible part of her being that so often guided her actions was telling her that reading the book was the only thing that could save Raven. How could reading a silly book of fictional stories help her friend, though, how could she gamble her friend's previous life on what amounted to nothing more than a hunch; her rational brain countered. But even as the questions flew through her mind, she knew the answer, that she could because it was more than just a "hunch," that it was a special knowledge that had come from the depths of her heart.

And so, she continued her oration again with final resolve.

"But she lay still, so still . . . Prince Florimond drew near, trembling and wondering, and sank on his knees beside her. Still she lay, scarcely seeming to breathe, and he bent and touched with his lips . . ." Starfire trailed off into silence as a faint blush came to her cheeks as she read what came next only to herself, her mouth only producing a faint, "oh my . . ." After a moment, though, she managed to regain her composure, and went on further. "With that, as the long spell of enchantment came to an end, the Princess awaked; and looking at him with eyes more tender than a first sight of him might seem to excuse:- 'Is it you, my Prince?' She said. 'You have been a long while coming!'"

For a long moment, Starfire was utterly silent as curious thoughts began to fly through her mind, moving through paths the alien girl had never even imagined existed. Then she spoke, as the whole of her unusual thinking could no longer be contained in her head alone.

"I am certainly not a prince, but perhaps a princess will do…?" She allowed the words to trail off as she looked over at Raven, as she lay still, so still on the bed, drawing closer to oblivion with each passing second. Starfire worried that she was going mad, for what she was going to do in her attempt to save her friend. But really, it was no more mad than thinking that reading to her would save her . . .

The blade came down, coming so close to Raven's jerked head that it actually shortened a number of hairs on the side of her head, just before it smashed into the rock beneath her, cutting more than a foot down into the solid stone, as if a hot knife through butter. It came back out with no visible resistance at all, while Raven struggled to squirm out from under the implacable weight pressing down on her back, ignoring the pain as she tried to escape her impending doom.

"Try to get away all you like, but I'll tell you right now that it's all futile, since you can't beat me anyways." The dark shadow that was Anbu and that was currently crushing Raven into the dirt said, giving a horrible, grating laugh as she raised her terrible sword over her head again. In her terror and desperation, Raven reached out to grasp up everything not firmly held in place and sent it all hurtling at the figure standing on her back. To her dismay, she felt her hold on each and every piece broken, a moment after which the rubble tumbled down atop her head. "I told you I was the better of us." Anbu murmured darkly, before her foot came away from Raven's back, allowing the girl to scramble away from her black-shrouded assailant and to her feet. "Let me show you, Raven dear."

_". . . passed across a second great court . . ."_

In the instant that Raven blinked while stumbling away, the dark shadow appeared before her, huge and monstrous sword held ready for a strike, and black mist just under the eyes twisted up into an unmistakably vicious smile. She thrust outward in a flash too quick for Raven to even follow, and the edge proved so unbelievably sharp that Raven didn't even feel the cut it made on her shoulder, though it was shallow and superficial at best. The dark magus stumbled back, her mind too stricken with terror to consider anymore intelligent of a tactic, and the black monster Anbu only laughed.

"Do you understand yet, do you comprehend how completely and utterly outmatched you are against me?" She swung the huge weapon left and right immensely fast, before she struck out again, inflicting another nineteen identical wounds across Raven's shoulders and upper arms in less than a second. Immediately after, the demon shadow pulled back, turning sideways as she spread her legs wide and brought her black blade back and over her head, the dust the movement kicked up causing the tiny slices on Raven's body to sting viciously, finally making Raven aware of their existence. Anbu spoke, her voice filled with bestial glee and inflected strangely with an odd echo and tone. "Raven dear, do my four little eyes deceive me, or are you shaking like a leaf caught in a hurricane?"

Raven was indeed quaking with absolute fear, which only grew worse when she found Anbu's indistinct, shadow-formed face right in front of hers, blood-red quadruple eyes filled with murderous intent and depraved enjoyment. "Oh, don't worry your pretty little head, my sweet little blackbird . . ." Her tone, disturbingly tender to Raven's ears, caused the girl only more apprehension, as did the transformed entity's abrupt action of pulling the two of them very close together. "It will all be over **very** soon, and you won't have a single care in the world . . ." Suddenly, she found herself roughly pushed away, and before she could do anything more than gasp in surprise, she felt the skin, fat, muscle, and sinew of her right calf torn into by a wicked swing of Anbu's blade, and she screamed.

She hit the ground hard and once again let loose a cry of pain as waves of agony radiated outward from the deep wound in her leg. Meanwhile, Anbu's black form slowly paced around Raven's, as she laughed raucously.

"How exactly do you think I should kill you, Raven dear?" She flicked her blade, spattering Raven and the ground around her with some of her own blood. "Should I rip you apart, piece by piece, and let you **bleed** between each cut?"

_". . . complede do dhe daindiesd of lace fruffles and dhe mosd delicade . . ."_

Without warning, Raven found an incredibly heavy weight atop her whole body, and the next time the demon spoke, she could feel her altered other self's hot breath falling directly on her neck. "Or perhaps I should just slowly crush you into a pulp, so you can feel as each and every bone in your body snaps in two." The weight that lay on Raven felt as though it grew even heavier, and she screamed once again, feeling the tension already growing in her skeletal structure. It continued to the sounds of Anbu's inhuman chuckles, until Raven was sure several of her bones were going to break all at once. And then it was gone, the sound of Anbu's hysterical laughter reaching Raven's ears.

"No, no, that would be far too simple, and not nearly painful enough to make up for the position I was forced into because of **you**." Raven heard the monster's footsteps, as she continued to muse on the subject. "Perhaps I could slice your stomach open and rip your insides to shreds, or give you a nice flensing and then let you very, **very** slowly bleed to death while you writhed in agony . . ." Without even bothering to try and disguise the sounds of her movements, Raven stumbled to her feet and did her best to quickly limp toward the exit portal from her mind, understanding quite well at that point that she did not stand a snowball's chance in hell against Anbu. Escape was the only option for survival at that point.

_". . . mirrors told him that he was also somewhat travel-sta . . ."_

Without even bothering to turn her head to view her fleeing prey, Anbu's whole black form shifted and tore through the air toward Raven, brutally crashing into her back with the force of a freight train and bearing her down to the ground with the same force, evoking a howl of anguish as her already abused back took even more.

"Tsk' tsk', Raven dear, you should know by now that anything at all you do is completely worthless." Anbu's perversion of her voice whispered into the ashen-skinned girl's ear, before she was lifted back to a standing position quite ungently. "Although I do adore your stubborn determination, since it's let me draw this out for _so_ much longer than I'd originally expected." Not even allowing Raven a chance to respond, Anbu struck her hard across the face with a balled fist, causing Raven to sway unsteadily on her feet as the combination of fatigue and accumulated physical punishment began to hit her hard, leaving her barely awake and alive on her feet.

_". . . rayed himself thus hardily, he resumed . . ."_

A whole barrage of blows followed the first, and the dark magus, as weak as she was, could do little more than stand and take them, waiting for the end to come. 'I'm sorry, Starfire, I failed you.' She thought ashamedly, just before Anbu's darkness shrouded fist came flying in to connect solidly with Raven's chest, physically blowing the blue-cloaked girl back and over several feet. The ground met her quite forcefully, but Raven was simply too numb by that point to notice, not even having the energy to make any sound at the event.

_". . . lay still, so still . . . Prince . . ."_

Anbu made her way to Raven easily, crouching casually over the girl's chest before grabbing her about the neck and pulling her up.

"For the final time: goodbye, my little blackbird." The transformed demon raised her other hand, currently encased in a seething orb of telekinetic energies, obviously intent on smashing Raven's skull in. But she hesitated, looking up at the nothingness that amounted to a sky in Raven's mind curiously.

_"Well, I am certainly not a prince, but perhaps a princess will do…?"_

The ghostly words reached the ashen-skinned girl's ears, causing her eyes to open just a little wider, before she murmured,

"Starfire . . . ?" Unceremoniously, Anbu let go of Raven's neck, allowing her head to drop back to the ground, before coming to stand over her other self. It was odd, even to Raven's pain addled mind, but it seemed as though the darkness that surrounded Anbu was fading, though the malice in her demonic eyes and the smug smirk on her lips were unmistakable.

"This isn't over, Raven dear, not by a longshot." The demon said, just before everything exploded into brilliant, blinding light.

Once Raven's eyes adjusted from the utter absence of real light in her mind to the presence of it in the real world, she found Starfire's orange-skinned face, eyes closed, directly before her very, **very** wide eyes. And, over her quivering, now moistened lips, Raven could feel the Tamaranian's soft, moist, faintly puckered lips, pressing gently against hers in a kiss. It was, really, a very chaste kiss, lips only pressed feather light against hers. But for Raven, it was absolute heaven. It was a kiss from Starfire, regardless of all other circumstance surrounding it's presentation, because that was all that mattered, that it was from Star.

Unable to contain herself in any manner, Raven tried to deepen the kiss, to begin participating in it by returning it. But, as soon as Raven moved beneath her, Starfire's eyes flew open and she pulled out of the kiss with a cry of joy.

"Raven!" The now super-charged alien girl quickly threw her arms out wide and then brought them around the dark magus in an almost bone-crushing hug. "You are awake, you are all right!" She cried out gleefully as she held Raven close, completely consumed by her elation that the friend she had looked after and feared for over the course of days on end was finally back to normal. Even as Starfire basked in that well-deserved relief, though, all was not well with Raven. Inside her mind spun a cyclone of wild, uncontrolled emotions, both conflicting and supportive, and they were only growing greater with each passing second.

In an instant, the kiss between the two super-heroines was renewed, though by Raven's initiative alone. It was deeper this time, though not incredibly so, and tender as well, Raven's maelstrom-controlled love personified. It took Starfire aback, leaving her utterly dumbfounded as to what was happening, and her confusion only grew when her friend slowly pulled away and out of the kiss. Because immediately thereafter, Raven's grey-skinned hands wrapped around Starfire's neck and began to squeeze with terrible, inhuman strength. As she felt the structures of her neck begin to bend and strain under the pressure of Raven's crushing grasp, Starfire looked to Raven's eyes in horror only to find a malice, an ultimate hatred so deep and livid in the depths of the other girl's violet orbs that she could not bear to look into them even a moment longer. So great was Starfire's bafflement at the events transpiring that she didn't even follow her most basic instinct to run from her assailant when Raven's hands suddenly unclenched from her throat. The next thing the alien's shell-shocked mind knew, she felt Raven's form pressed even _closer_ to hers, as well as the soft-skinned hand of her friend sliding up her inner thighs and under her skirt. Once there, it began to unabashedly touch and caress Starfire through the thin cloth of her underwear, bringing a fierce blush to the Tamaranian's face and only adding to the turmoil of her own emotions. And, just as unexpectedly as it had begun, it seemed, the whole fiasco ended, with Raven literally throwing herself away from Starfire, and completely off of her own bed, in fact.For the brief moment she could see her friend's face as she fairly flew away, she saw features suffused with the utmost sorrow, grief, and remorse, and then Raven was gone, vanishing from sight as she fell below the edge of the bed.

And everything was silent and still, as Starfire's mind slowly began to work again, and started to sort through the incomprehensible occurrence that had just gone on. Eventually, after very slowly examining the whole of the room from her perch on the bed, observing the destruction Raven's emotion fueled powers had wrought, the crimson-haired girl began very carefully, and very quietly crawling her way across the bed to where Raven had gone over the edge at. Raven was on the floor right beside the bed, legs drawn up underneath her and head flat on the floors, hands covering her ears while she rocked back and forth in that position steadily. Starfire spoke not a word, instead simply watching Raven very closely as she continued to move back and forth, not losing nor gaining speed in the least. No orbs of green plasma came to her hands, despite the danger Raven might well pose to her then, simply because she found the idea of attacking, of fighting, of hurting her friend completely abhorrent, no matter the situation.

With time, Raven stopped rocking, and gradually came out of her odd position, though she kept her gaze to the floor and refused to look at the Tamaranian that she knew perched on the end of her bed just over her. Her emotions were once again under control, but there was one thing, one feeling Raven could no longer hid, that the dark magus **would** no longer hide. Deliberately, she raised her head, letting her gaze rise with the moment, until she was staring straight at Starfire's face, eyes locked with those of the other girl.

"Raven . . . ?"

"I love you, Starfire."

Author's Notes: Now that it won't ruin anything, I give full credit for the fairytale I used; The Sleeping Beauty, of course; to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. I only physically altered his work in a few places, and made a little fudge due to a realization I came to part way through writing this. I found the copy I used at , and you're welcome to go and look to figure out what I'm talking about. It'll give you something to do until the next chapter update.


	8. Princess Charming

**Chapter 8: Princess Charming**

Silence consumed the whole of the room once again, along with the minds and hearts of each girl. Only the very quiet sound of their restrained breathing filtered though the air, but neither truly heard it. Raven waited, apprehension growing in her with every moment that Starfire stared at her with those wide, uncomprehending eyes. In her chest, even her heart beat slowly, as if bated to defy Raven's wish for time to speed up, for the agonizing moment to end. And in Starfire's mind, she was _unsure_ of how to respond. She knew, simply from the very way that Raven was looking at her with fearful eyes, that Raven did not mean the kind of platonic love that she knew she held for the other girl.

In a small part of the very back of the Tamaranian's brain, a large portion of the puzzling events of the last week suddenly became clear. Raven's increase in power, the unusual behavior around her, Raven's destruction of Titanus just before she had been about to kiss Robin. All of it had happened because Raven had feelings for her and had been trying to hide them. Ultimately, the revelation fell on deaf ears, as the rest of Starfire's brain was more concerned with trying to sort out the alien girl's now jumbled feelings, and come up with something, anything to say to her friend. When the mess of thoughts finally became too great to be contained in Star's head, they simply spilled forth, coming out as vocalized words from the crimson-haired girl's mouth.

"Raven . . . you . . . I . . . we are . . . Robin . . ." And with that, Raven's tiny, fragile hope that Starfire would simply reply in kind to her declaration of love right then and there was shattered. Worse, the mention of Robin's name brought a cinder of burning jealousy into Raven's heart, and that cinder grew into a flame, one which tempered the dark magus' heart into an impenetrable steel fortress.

"Of course, I nearly forgot that you . . ." Perhaps "impenetrable" was too strong a word to use, as the emotional weakness in that armor showed through in her hesitation to finish the sentence. "Love, Robin." Without bothering to say another word, Raven simply looked down from Starfire, and the shadow beneath her began to rise up in the form of a bird.

"Raven, wait!" Starfire cried, reaching out with surprising speed to take hold of Raven's arm, in hopes that doing so might keep her from leaving.

For a moment, the ashen-skinned girl stared down at Starfire's hand holding her arm in shock, the raven-like manifestation of the teleportation stopping in its rise and wavering, as if unsure. Then she returned her gaze to Starfire's face, sadness deep-set in her violet eyes, and let the symbol of her magic vanish back into the shadows beneath her. After another few seconds of silence, over which Star assured herself that Raven would stay, she let go of her friend, bringing her hand back to place it in her lap before speaking.

"It is true that I have feelings for Robin, but I have feelings for you as well. It makes me sad to see you in pain . . . there must be something I can do for you." Starfire looked to her friend with pleading eyes, and Raven knew even as she looked into them that what Star said was true, that she was upset because of what was wrong with her. She looked away, and hardened her features into a mask of emotional neutrality, and letting the lids of her eyes droop far enough to obscure their emotional depth, and suddenly she became the Raven that Starfire had known for far too long.

"I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to do, Starfire." She said in her usual monotone, though her eyes went very wide when the Tamaranian fairly leapt off of the bed and grabbed her about the shoulders, forcing Raven to look at her.

"But I want to help!" The dark magus simply looked aside again, her eyes narrowing in an almost bitter manner.

"There's nothing you could do, it's not as though we could date like _normal_ people or anything." The words rolled off-handedly from Raven's tongue, born from resentment of her situation, but the utterly unexpected answer she received from the object of her affections blew all such emotions completely away.

"Then that is what we will do!" The alien girl smiled widely, her eyes closing in her joy at finding something she could do to help her friend, and therefore causing her to completely miss the shocked look plastered across the ashen-skinned girl's face.

"What?!"

"If that is what will make you happy, then I will try!" Starfire nodded in that "oblivious," and happy way that Raven knew so well, the way that she always nodded when her mind was made up and would not be changed.

With a sardonic, self-mocking sigh and a shake of her head, Raven smiled just faintly, and spoke.

"Well then . . . I suppose we could date a little, to see how things go." At that point, the dark magus was not quite sure of what was going on, the very scene existed as some sort of surreal joke on all that should have existed, of all reality. So, she decided she might as well give up on trying to keep a level head and just go along with the insanity.

"Glorious!" Starfire shouted joyously, shifting her hold on Raven from clutching at her shoulders to hugging her tightly. "But I must ask, though . . ." She said, pulling away from Raven slightly to look her in the face. "What exactly does human dating entail?" The question caused the ashen-skinned girl's spirits to fall just slightly, as she realized that the "too good to be true" scene had been created by Starfire's ignorance of human customs.

With a heavy heart, Raven spoke, moving to dispel the illusion of happiness that had formed.

"Dating is a thing that is done on earth, when people do things together to become closer, generally in hopes that they will grow to love one another. They go to movies, spend time together in natural places, talk, eat together, and do such things to enjoy themselves together." She watched Starfire, but was again surprised when Starfire simply smiled.

"This is wonderful! If dating is as you say, then we may date while we work together to return your powers to your own control!" Yet again, Star managed to catch the dark magus off-balance, bringing her to a pause.

"My powers . . . what do you mean?" Almost sadly, Starfire let go of Raven to allow her to look around, to take in the devastation her powers had caused.

And, even before Raven could speak again, the Tamaranian reached out to gently take her friend's arm in hand, bringing it up; and, more importantly, her wounds; into Raven's sight.

"Though I am not entirely sure, I also believe that your powers did this to you." The dream realm Raven felt like she was existing in became a little more real, Starfire's comment bringing her sharply into focus on the facts of what had happened.

She briefly looked over the whole of her own body, at the many bandages and scratches all over it, most only barely hidden by the large, baggy shirt that was draped about her form.

"Your uniform was destroyed yesterday, and more open clothing made taking care of you easier." Starfire commented as she noticed Raven looking at her unexpected dress, causing Raven to realize that Star had been and was quietly and patiently waiting and watching the dark magus examine herself and think. With a faint blush, Raven also suddenly became aware of exactly how "open" her current state of dress; or rather, relative undress; and had to suppress a number of less than pure thoughts that rose in the back of her mind. For another few moments, Raven and Starfire only looked at one another, not really sure of what to say. Eventually, Raven could not stand to let it go on any longer, looking away from the lime and emerald eyes of the crimson-haired alien when she couldn't contain the feelings building in her from staring into those orbs.

"Raven?" Starfire asked, leaning slightly to the side and forward to get a better look at her mysterious friend's face.

"I'm fine, Starfire, just a little weak still . . ." Raven murmured in response only lying in the faintest sense, as her body did ache immensely, and it was obvious that her will was not up for emotional control yet.

"It is understandable, I can only assume from your grievous injuries that these last few days have been very arduous for you, friend." Raven nodded in response, then took a few breaths to strengthen herself, and straightened.

"They were, and thank you, Starfire, for taking care of me through it." Starfire smiled again, and nodded.

"You are very welcome, Raven, I am proud to have been able to aid you in what small way I could." Again, the silence pressed in on the two, crushing them with its terrible weight, which only felt even greater for Raven, as she no longer had anything left to say to break it.

So, instead, Starfire spoke.

"Perhaps we should inform the others of your wellness now, I believe that they arrived back not long ago." Starfire stood, already intent on doing just that, since there seemed to be no logical reason for why Raven would _not_ want to tell the boys that she was alright. But, as Raven was finding out quite painfully, there were a number of hidden complications to trying to have a relationship with Starfire.

"Starfire, wait." Raven said, not really looking at Starfire as she did so.

The alien stopped dead in her step and turned back around, just a little apprehensively.

"Yes, Raven?" The dark magus did not answer for a long time, as a hundred different ways of phrasing her thoughts shot through her mind. All through it, the Tamaranian simply stood and waited, the only visible sign of her hidden worry being her tightly clenched hands. Finally, Raven decided, and spoke.

"Can we _not_ tell the boys about our dating, Starfire?" Still, she did not actually look to the other girl, keeping her eyes to the floor, and her face hidden by her hanging bangs.

Notably, Star's hands unclenched considerably, but every bit of trepidation she lost was replaces by confusion in her odd eyes, as her head titled to the side.

"Why should we not tell the boys, Raven?" The ashen-skinned girl jerked her head up to look at Starfire, her prepared answer scattering from her mind like a flock of pigeons before a rambunctious child.

Starfire really did not know, did not understand what was happening, had not been on earth long enough to know about the myriad prejudices that existed. But with her strong sense of morality, if she found out, if she thought it was wrong . . . the concept was far too heart-wrenching to even consider. So what reason was she to give to Starfire, one that would not imply that there was something immoral about them being together, but which also wasn't a lie? She did not want to lie to Starfire, almost more than anything else, both out of fear of betraying the girl's trust and simply out of respect for her. Which only left one thing which Raven's scattered mind could come up with. It diverted the focus from the homosexual content of their relationship, and wasn't _technically_ a lie, though it wasn't the whole truth either.

But, as Raven saw Starfire's apprehension returning to her body language, the desperate girl knew she didn't have time to find a better answer.

"Star, what is our job?" She blurted out, just a little lamely, catching the crimson-haired alien quite off-guard.

"Our . . . our occupation?" Starfire asked, gazing at Raven quizzically as her violet-haired friend quickly composed herself.

"Yes, what do we do?"

"I do not understand, friend." Star shook her head, as if hoping to right whatever had gone lop-sided in her brain and was causing such confusion in her thoughts. "Do you mean helping those in danger?" Raven nodded sharply, doing her best to hold her illusion of normalcy.

"Exactly. We work together, Starfire. That's why we have to keep our dating a secret." She gestured in the direction the main living area of the tower; and most likely, the boys; lay for emphasis. "The boys would just worry, needlessly, about us. That's what happens when co-workers date, people talk and worry." She looked her teammate directly in the eye, doing her best to bury the guilt and misgiving in the deepest parts of her violet eyes. "But if we don't tell them, then they won't have to worry." Starfire blinked a few times, and then slowly nodded.

"I suppose that is true, but . . ." Raven didn't let her finish the objection.

"Please, Starfire, let's just keep this secret." At length, Starfire considered Raven's words silently, not entirely sure of how to react to her friend's proposal. With time, she nodded once again, this time more assuredly.

"I defer to your greater wisdom, friend." She bowed slightly, respectfully. "May we now visit our friends and bring them the joyful news of your recovery?"

"Yes, just let me get dressed . . ." Raven murmured in response, getting to her feet and heading for her closet with deliberately slow steps, silently worrying about all of the many issues she now faced, and dreading them.

". . . And that is what we have decided to do." Starfire finished, leaving Robin and Cyborg still looking at her with a certain amount of uncertainty.

"So, Raven is okay, but she isn't ready to come back to duty?" Robin asked without moving from his position, one side of his mask raised higher than the other, in the manner of an eyebrow.

"Yes, she has both injuries to recover from, and her powers are still not completely under control yet." Starfire answered, nodding a little sadly at the mention of Raven's wounds.

"So this is all related to her powers." Robin stated with a certain cynical lilt to his voice, obviously a little tired of Raven's power issues, and Starfire nodded in response, though a little hesitantly.

"Yes, it is, but please do not blame our friend for this, it is not her fault." Robin did not acknowledge Starfire's request, simply remaining silent as he cupped his chin in his hand in contemplation, and so Cyborg took up the mantle of questioning instead.

"So, you're going to stay with her while she recovers, and leave the rest of us to fight everything short-handed?" He paused only for a moment, until Star nodded in confirmation, and continued. "Alright then, but you and Raven are going to owe us big time after this is over." Cyborg smiled good-naturedly, and the Tamaranian returned the gesture whole-heartedly.

"Oh, certainly!" She clasped her hands together before her happily. "As soon as all is done, I will make a feast to rival that which is served on the greatest of Tamaranian festivals!" Cyborg blanched just a tad, and quickly brought his metal hands up in a placating manner while shaking his head nervously.

"Actually, I was kinda hoping that you could promise _not_ to cook anything for a couple of weeks." Starfire blinked, and for a moment her expression fell into utter despair, but it returned to a normal, if a little hurt, arrangement quickly.

"Of course, any thing to make you happy, friend." Cyborg looked a little guilty at having hurt Starfire's feelings, but not really knowing what to say in order to fix the damage he'd done, he had little choice but to leave.

In the taller Titan's absence, Robin spoke once again.

"You're up for doing this?" Starfire looked a little confused at the query.

"What do you mean, Robin?"

"You told us yourself that these last few days have been really difficult for you, are you sure you're ready to take care of Raven again, knowing that she might well fall into another coma at any time, or even worse?" The boy wonder watched Starfire closely, his gaze locked firmly with hers, but Star only smiled lightly.

"It is not an issue, friend, because Raven is fine now, she simply needs time to rest and recover." Robin maintained his stony stare for another few moments, trying to ascertain whether or not Starfire truly meant what she was saying.

Eventually, satisfied, he broke sight and looked aside in thought.

"If that's what you want to do, then do it, and we'll handle the rest." He confirmed before walking off toward where Raven stood against the wall, who was currently being bothered by Beast Boy, obviously too absorbed in his own considerations for pleasantries.

Starfire watched him go, and though her lack of worry _had_ been true before, the seed had been planted and was already beginning to grow and fester.

Meanwhile, Raven stood silently by the wall off to the side of the living area in full dress, form almost completely hidden within her cloak, save what little of her face was not consumed by the shadow of her cowl. Presently, she was doing her absolute damndest to ignore the little green and black mutt that was prancing about her feet energetically.

"Come on, was it some kind of weird, alien brain slug that slithered into your ear while you were sleeping, or a crazy, invisible ghost that attacked you and possessed your body?" The diminutive shape shifter asked at a mile a minute once he gathered enough concentration to revert to his normal form.

Raven gave no answer, remaining adamantly resolved to ignore the green pest until he simply went away.

"Or-or maybe it was a mind control chip implanted in your brain when you were born by insane techno-druids that finally turned on!" But, as the jokester of the Titans only continued in his antics, Raven's patience ran thin, her eyes opening and already glowing white, ready to- . . .

"BB, just leave the girl alone and go play some video games, you're even starting to annoy _me_." Cyborg said playfully, though with an undertone of utter seriousness, as he grabbed the smaller boy by the shoulders and immediately moved him away from the dark magus.

The light faded from Raven's eyes, and she looked to the cybernetically-enhanced youth questioningly, locking eyes with him as he looked to her as well. Something imperceptible passed between the two, a certain base understanding, and both nodded. Without another word spoken, Cyborg led Beast Boy away from the ashen-skinned girl, giving her the space she desired. That is, until Robin walked up before her.

"So, you really are alright?" He asked easily, despite the stiff, formal way his body held itself then.

"More or less." He nodded in acceptance of her response, and moved right on.

"What happened . . . will it be a danger to the rest of the team?" Raven took no offense at the question, knowing that Robin did not mean it as any form of insult, that he simply wanted to know whether or not precautions were necessary for the safety of everyone.

"I . . . hope not." Raven said just a little lamely, and received yet another nod of approval from Robin.

"And you do know that you can always come and talk to the rest of us if you need to, right?" He asked, gently placing a hand on the dark magus' shoulder as he spoke, reassuringly.

"Of course, I've always known that." She responded in kind, smiling just a little at the gesture.

The team's defacto leader nodded one last time, and returned the smile.

"Alright then, you and Star should try and get some sleep then, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and I can take the late watch."

"We'll do that, and . . . thanks."

"No problem."

Through the halls the two walked, Raven just a little ahead of Starfire, due to the Tamaranian's slightly slower walking pace. They traveled in silence, a normal thing for the generally anti-social dark magus, but much less so for her talkative companion, who was too consumed by the fear Robin's words had put in her to think about anything really. Eventually, they came to the door to Starfire's room, and stopped.

"Here's your room, Starfire." Raven said, simply to say something and not let the silence choke the air, and Starfire nodded weakly in response.

"Yes . . ." Raven looked forward again, away from Starfire, and nodded herself.

"Goodnight." Then she began to walk away, leaving the other girl behind, Star looking unsure and clutching her hands to her chest.

Finally, just as Raven was about to turn the corner at the end of the hall, Starfire spoke her wish.

"Raven, wait . . ." The ashen-skinned girl stopped in mid-step, and slowly craned her head to look aside and at her desired.

"Yes, Starfire?"

"Perhaps . . . maybe I could . . . should sleep with you tonight, friend." she was flustered, tripping over her own feelings and worries even as she tried to form the thoughts that guided her words, and so by the time she was finished, her whole face was fairly burning with embarrassment at her incompetence.

With her hood up as it was, it was impossible to see what kind of emotions crossed the girl's face at Starfire's request, but after a moment of contemplative thought, Raven answered.

"If you want to, Starfire." She waited, and after a little hesitation, Star flew over to where Raven stood, alighting gracefully on the ground beside her friend, and then following once the Dark magus set off.

Once again, silence consumed the pair, smothering Starfire as it grew so thick that it almost seemed palpable, pressing in on the crimson-haired girl from all sides and crushing her with its immeasurable weight. When she could no longer stand it, she blurted out,

"Are you very tired, Raven?" The cloaked girl paused for a moment after Starfire spoke, and then slowly pulled her hood back from her face, turning her head to look back at the Tamaranian with gentle, smiling eyes.

"Extremely, I'm barely keeping on my feet as it is, what about you?" Star put on her smile, though it was a tad false, and answered.

"A little, but I am fine." Raven nodded, and the two continued on, even if they did so quietly, it did not bother Starfire now that she knew her friend was happy.

It wasn't long before they reached Raven's domicile, Raven entering first by virtue of walking ahead of Starfire, but the red-haired alien girl was only a moment behind. The room was much cleaner than before, as Raven had made it a point to remove the destroyed remains of her things from the floor after Star had nearly stepped on a number of shards of metal. Her hesitance finally manifesting, Raven slowly crossed the length of her room to her bed, sitting down nervously on one edge, and in a similar manner, Starfire took her seat on the opposite side. Both stared at the expanse of bed between them without saying a word, causing the room to fall into a hush. So quiet, it was, that the distant sound of a bird cawing snapped both girls to full attention.

In their haste, both almost spoke at the same time, but their eyes met as their mouths opened, and Starfire snapped hers shut, letting Raven speak first.

"We should just sleep like this, I'll take this side and you can take that side, the bed's large enough for- . . ." Starfire shook her head, becoming more composed as Raven seemed to grow more agitated.

"No, you are frightened, Raven." The Tamaranian looked down for a moment, making an internal decision, and then slowly crossed the bed to where Raven sat.

For a time, they only sat and watched one another, Raven's fear becoming much more evident in her violet eyes as she remained in the situation. Slowly, and with utter and complete gentility, Starfire reached out to Raven, at first only touching the girl and ceasing when she shied away from the contact. But, eventually, the red-haired alien girl managed to wrap her arms completely around the dark magus, at which point she pulled Raven close to her, carefully setting the other girl's head against her chest, one arm held across Raven's back, while the other cradled the mage's purple-haired head.

"I remember my nurse holding me like this when I was frightened, and how it always caused me to feel better." She looked down at Raven, into the wide eyes of the other girl. "Perhaps it will achieve the same effect with you?" Raven attempted to speak, to object in some manner to what was happening even as she fought her shock.

"Star- . . . Star- . . . fire . . ." But, stronger than her will to object or her distress, apparently, was her fatigue, as demonstrated by the drooping of her eyelids even as she spoke.

It was not even a full second after her voice trailed off that Raven's eyes closed completely and her breathing grew even, signaling that she had fallen asleep. The truth behind Starfire's actions was that they were only half done to allay the perceived fear in her friend and the other half was to soothe her own worries. The comforting hold, though, didn't work as well for Starfire as it had for Raven. Despite her total exhaustion, Starfire couldn't let her own eyes fall closed, as Robin's cautioning words echoed through the back of her mind.

_". . . knowing that she might well fall into another coma at any time, or even worse?"_

She was afraid, immensely so, that the nightmare of the last few weeks would begin anew, that at any moment then, Raven would burst out in phantom wounds again and that she would be powerless to help her friend all over again. She dreaded that if such a thing were to happen, so soon after the last, that Raven would not survive it. So great was her anxiety that she barely even blinked as she continued her vigil over the sleeping girl for hours, watching with morbid anticipation for the first sign of discomfort.

And, before Starfire even knew it, the sun was shining on her haggard face, bringing warmth into the skin of her drawn, fearful features. As the golden rays filtered in through the window and slowly change the angle at which they came in, they illuminated the pale skin of Raven's face with a brilliant, almost angelic halo of light, making her to stir slightly in Star's arms, causing the Tamaranian to go stock-still, fearing the worst. Then Raven's violet eyes fluttered open, looking almost lavender as the intense morning sunlight shined into them. With a soft sigh of relief, the tension slipped from Starfire's body, going virtually limp in but an instant.

"Starfire?" Raven asked, just a little sleepily, looking up at the face of the girl holding her.

Life, as it were, returned to the alien's form, and with only a little difficulty she managed a smile for her friend.

"Yes, Raven?"

"Do you want to go for a walk around the island a little later in the day?" Starfire nodded, only allowing a slight amount of tiredness creep into the action, and Raven smiled wider in return.

"Certainly, that sounds like a wonderful activity, friend."

"Perfect."

The sun was quite brilliant in the almost clear blue sky, besides the distant clouds on the horizon, even though it had fallen from its zenith some time ago. It blazed down on the white, rocky landscape that the pair moved across, baking the stones to a burning temperature. Somehow, though, the day seemed almost perfect to Raven, despite all of that.

"It's been a long time since I've seen the sky this blue." She said, looking straight up into the cloudless reaches, and therefore entirely missed Starfire's struggles.

"Yes, it is . . . wonderful, Raven." The Tamaranian added weakly, as her body quickly became immensely tired, due both to the exertion and the heat.

Intentionally, she stayed a distance behind Raven, because her friend finally appeared to be enjoying herself, and Starfire did not want to destroy that happiness with her own petty problems. But she was so very, very tired, her whole body felt a hundred times heavier than usual, as if the clothes she wore were actually weights to restrain her movement, and the lids of her eyes were constantly slipping lower and lower. The only thing even keeping her awake at all was the fact that she was following Raven as they took their little jaunt around the island. But even then she was still not fully awake, and the problems with that situation quickly became apparent when she tripped over a small rock, almost falling flat on her face before Raven caught her.

"Starfire, are you alright?" Raven asked worriedly, holding the fallen girl close to her form as she tried to get them both standing again.

"Of course, I simply did not see that small stone that I tripped over, that is all . . ." The crimson-haired girl murmured quietly before lifting her head and smiling weakly at her friend, the deep-set bags beneath her eyes betraying her deception.

"Is something wrong, Star?" Raven questioned as she finally got the Tamaranian on her own feet, slowly moving away to see if the alien could stand alone, without her aid.

Starfire managed the feat, but only barely.

"Certainly not, I am perfectly fine, friend . . ." She hesitated a moment in her speech, noticing a young tree growing a short distance away, one which would provide a lovely, shaded and cool place to sit. "But perhaps we should rest for a moment or two, before continuing our walk." Without even waiting for a response from Raven, Star began walking, just a little unsteadily, toward the tree, and Raven followed, a concerned look twisting her soft features.

The instant that Starfire walked into the shade of the young tree, she fairly collapsed on the ground beneath it, falling in a heap at the base of its trunk. Raven shook her head guiltily, before crouching down beside her love's form.

"You should have told me you were too tired to do this." She whispered, before carefully slipping her arms underneath the other girl and gently lifting her up from the ground.

With only a small amount of help from her powers, Raven managed to get Starfire back to the tower without taking too much time, which was deserted due to the boys still being out on patrol. Starfire's room came not long after, into which Raven went, thoughtfully laying the Tamaranian out in the way that she normally slept, head draped over the edge of the bed so that it bent backward a considerable amount. Then she went to leave, but paused even as she did so. She had the power to heal Starfire, to remove whatever fatigue was sown deep in her muscles, which was so abundant that she had fairly fallen asleep on her feet even as they were walking. But Raven feared, greatly, the information she would gain by taking Starfire's pain unto herself, feared to know what Starfire had been feeling over the last few days. Regardless of such conditions, the part of her that loved Starfire so much mobilized her body, causing it to act and return to Star's bed, the dark magus' hands going to gently hold the Tamaranian's shoulders. That was her greatest mistake.

As the violet-haired girl's power began to slip and twist through Starfire's body, all the pain, sadness, anger, and anguish that the alien had felt over the last few days coursed into Raven, and suddenly she understood, so terribly well. She felt Starfire's terror at the strange, deadly-serious happening occurring around her friend, the impotent rage and sorrow at not being able to do anything besides sit and watch as Raven's body destroyed itself. And, most of all, her agony, her pain, and her utter suffering that emerged from all of that, as well as the fact that someone Starfire cared about was dying.

The very moment that Raven had collected the last of the Tamaranian's trauma, almost completely removing the effects of the past ordeal on the girl, she wrenched herself away from Starfire, falling to the floor with a loud crash. Immediately, her hands went to her head, clutching at it in a futile attempt to numb the throbbing pain in her skull, the price she paid for erasing Starfire's suffering. But there was more to it than that, as became evident when Raven tore out of the room at top speed, leaving behind her a small trail of splattered tear drops.

The worldslowly slipped into focus as her eyes drifted open. A familiar wall, painted a moderately dark pink appeared before her, one she could remember seeing often. In fact, it was the very wall that Starfire always saw when she woke up, the wall across from her bed in her room. Normally, the alien girl wouldn't have taken this as an _odd_ thing, if it weren't for the nagging little thought at the back of her mind, one which she could not fully bring to mind but knew was important enough to warrant doing so. As a great boom of thunder rocked through the tower, Starfire unconsciously wondered if the storm was coming from the clouds she'd seen earlier in the day.

And, with that stray wonder's appearance in her mind, the thought that had been nagging at the back of her brain snapped violently to the forefront of her mind. She shouldn't be sleeping in her own bed in her own room, alone, she should be sleeping with Raven, making sure she was all right and not fallen into another deadly nightmare! She had been with Raven earlier in the day, walking the island, but it was obvious from the way her memory failed her at that point that she had fallen asleep on her friend. Without wasting even another moment, Starfire rocketed from her bed and out the slightly open door of her room, flying through the halls of the tower at top speed to get to Raven as quickly as possible, fearing the worst to have happened due to her weakness and slip in vigilance.

She reached the other's room in only a handful of seconds, fairly breaking down the door in her haste to get in. Inside she found the room dark, as always, and could see the rain pouring down on the large windows at the side in waves, as well as hear it quite well. But she was more concerned with the tiny sound she'd caught as she entered, so quiet that it was almost completely lost among the noise of the storm, the sound of stifled crying. Lightning flashed, illuminating Raven's small, curled up form on her bed, and Starfire approached, speaking as she did so,

"Raven . . ." Before the super-powered alien could go any farther, though, Raven's strained voice rang out.

"I'm sorry, Starfire." More suppressed sounds reached Star's ears, and she slowly moved closer, her worry only growing, despite knowing that her friend was sound (physically, at least).

"Why do you apologize, Raven, you have done nothing wrong to me."

"Yes I have, I've done more than enough to you." The dark magus sat up on her bed, back turned to Starfire. "I've been too weak to take care of myself, forcing you to do it for me, I put you through a living hell these past few days with what happened to me, making you worry constantly about my well being and whether or not I'd survive." She looked back at Starfire over her shoulder, eyes still clouded with tears. "And worst of all, I've been forcing you to care about me, even though you don't." Brilliant, blinding light filled the room as another bolt stuck down particularly close to the tower, and the Tamaranian hesitated for a moment, stalling in coming up with a response to Raven's accusations against herself.

But, it was not long before she continued her approach, sitting down beside Raven and drawing the other girl into her arms, though the ashen-skinned girl's eyes immediately fell to the bed beside them, not looking at Star.

"It is not your fault that you are too injured to completely take care of yourself, Raven, and therefore you are not to blame for my burden in having to assist you." She gently stroked the dark magus' hair, comforting her. "Though I will admit that your nightmare period was very difficult and painful for me, I refuse to believe that you entered your coma on purpose to hurt me, leaving you without fault for the pain that event caused me." Softly, she slid her hand down to cup Raven's chin, gently urging the other girl to look at her face. "And, more than anything else, you are wrong about me not caring for you, because I care deeply." Raven gazed into Starfire's eyes almost slack-jawed for quite some time, the emotion running through her wide eyes unreadable, but eventually a recognition sparked deep in them and she looked away, expression bitter. "Please, do not look like that, it saddens me when I know that I have made you feel that way." Star whispered, her own eyes falling in shame at having upset Raven.

"It's . . . not your fault, Starfire, it's mine." The alien girl shook her head, crimson locks flashing in the air just enough to catch Raven's eye, and she looked.

"I do not care, I want to make you happy, and I will do so even if it is the death of me." The proclamation was at once both defiant and comforting, and it gave the dark magus pause.

She smiled then, if only faintly.

"Well, considering how late it is, sleeping would be nice." Starfire blinked, looking off to the side and out the window for a moment, before realizing that the storm clouds were not blocking out the sun, that it was, in fact, already night time.

"Yes, I suppose resting once again would be a well advised course of action." Starfire moved, intending to lay the both of them out for their rest, but found Raven resisting the attempt.

"Only on one condition, though." Raven said, looking Star square in the eyes as she did so. "_You_ have to go to sleep first." The Tamaranian bristled, indignance rising in her at the mistrust Raven was showing her.

"I do not believe that is necessary- . . ." Raven's gaze did not waver, though.

"I don't want to hurt you in any way, more than anything else, I don't want to do that." She took Starfire's hands in her own, holding them tightly. "So please, just believe me when I promise you that I'll be fine, that I'll always be right here beside you when you wake up." With the rain stopped, the occasional drip of leftover water was everything, all the sound that existed for a time.

Then Starfire nodded, accepting the terms and the promise, and Raven smiled.

"Thank you, Star."

"No, I must thank _you_, for being concerned about my well-being when I was not able to be."

"It's nothing, Starfire, now let's just go to sleep." Without further delay, the alien girl laid herself and Raven back, and with less hesitance than before, Raven lay her head on Starfire's chest, though she notable kept it craned far enough back to keep her eyes on Starfire's face.

The crimson-haired girl finally allowed her eyes to fall closed once she saw the adamant resolve in the other girl's eyes, and in not more than a few seconds she was fast asleep. Raven followed her but a moment later, letting the strong, steady beating of Starfire's heart in her chest lull her into a comforting, restful sleep.

The clouds parted, the moon bathed the pair in silvery radiance, and they were as angels.

The footsteps in the sand that covered much of the rock layers on the island went in a straight, easy line. Then they became a meandering mess, quickly dissolving almost completely as rough-housing and play became the agenda of the traveling pair. They appeared once again a yard or two away, indicating the end of the play, though the shorter spacing between each showed a slower pace, indicative of speaking while walking. This continued until the tracks tell on the actual beach, at which point they burst into wide, erratic steps that a mad, racing dash would have created. A considerable distance away the tracks were obliterated completely, removed by the brief wrestling match that had ensued, wiping wide swaths in the sand as the two vied for domination. And, finally, a few last steps led to Starfire and Raven, quietly meditating to the soft sounds of the surf washing over and up the beach.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos . . . Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos . . ." They intoned in unison continuously, finding the meaning hidden in the nothingness at the depths of their minds and souls.

Then Starfire's eye popped open, glancing over at Raven beside her.

"Raven?" The dark magus' own eye closest to her partner in meditation opened, similarly looking over at Star.

"Yes, Starfire?"

"The island is a wonderful place to spend time, but we have been here for days, could we not go to a new area, like the park in the city?" Both of Raven's eyes opened then, and she looked away briefly, toward the area in question, right near the heart of the metropolis that the Titans were charged with defending.

In the city, there were so many people, and worse, the boys would be patrolling as well. But, even as those grave considerations ran through her mind, she saw Starfire's desire to spend time in the park in her expression, and she couldn't muster enough willpower to deny her love.

"Alright, we'll go tomorrow, after we wake up." Starfire smiled form ear to ear in response to Raven's answer.

"Glorious!" With only a small movement, the Tamaranian managed to snatch Raven's smaller form up in her arms in a tight hug, evoking a smile from the ashen-skinned girl, but it was not fully there, as the world at large loomed on the dark, and frighteningly unsure, horizon.


	9. All the King's Men and All the King's Ho...

**Chapter 9: All the King's Men and All the King's Horses . . .**

The park was absolutely alive with energy, the happy cries of playful children, the soft trill of spring birds calling out to the clear sky, the soft, cool breeze caressing skin like a loving mother, all contributed to the almost electrically charged atmosphere. This made the meditation Raven and Starfire were attempting to do extremely difficult, as the infectious rhythm of life crept insidiously into their calmed bodies.

"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos . . . Azara- . . ." Starfire paused in her chant, throwing Raven off as well, due to the lost of fluidity and harmony.

"Raven, I feel . . . strange, I cannot seem to remain still." She commented, looking over at the dark heroine beside her.

"That's because there's too much going on here, it's difficult to concentrate with a constant distraction like this." The dark magus gestured widely, indicating the groups of children and adults playing various games not far away, as well as those simply walking about while talking to one another amicably, and the many animals scurrying about the park. "Focusing on the self is difficult in this situation because all these other things demand the attention which is needed for examination, that's why I normally meditate away from others." Starfire looked down, shamed.

"I am sorry, I did not realize, otherwise I would not have suggested that we come to this place." Raven shook her head, and at first reached for the Tamaranian's chin, but she instead shifted at the last moment and planted her hand on the other girl's shoulder.

"It's okay, Star." She smiled a little when the alien looked back up. "Besides, our dates are supposed to include work on my powers _and_ fun for you, and I'm pretty sure we haven't done any of the latter yet." Starfire blinked, and began to object,

"But, Raven- . . ." She was cut off even before she got started, though.

"No 'buts,' Star." Raven let go of her love's shoulder, and crossed her arms over her chest in a manner which showed she would brook no more dissent in the ranks. "So, what would you like to do?" At first, the crimson-haired girl pouted indignantly at having been led around by the nose, as Raven had just done, but that pout gave way to a smile shortly as the Tamaranian truly realized what Raven was asking.

"Perhaps we could play a game . . . 'tag,' I think your people call it." Raven smirked, but nodded her agreement to Starfire's choice none-the-less.

"Alright then, tag, you're it." Within a moment of having bent forward and poked Star on the tip of her orange-skinned nose with one index finger, Raven was swallowed up by her teleportation manifestation, leaving Starfire to stand alone and blink in confusion.

Then, after realizing what had just transpired, she took to the air, quickly getting into the game as she used her superior vantage point to locate Raven. It took the playful Tamaranian a minute or two, but she eventually caught sight of a flash of Raven's blue cloak behind a tree. She reached the site in an instant, only to find that Raven was not and had not been wearing the cloak, that she had taken it off before and left it as bait for Star.

"You know, I suddenly realize that trick would have been much more useful if there was a safe spot set up." Raven commented dryly, crouching on the branch just over where Starfire was standing, causing the other girl to jerk her head up in surprise.

And then, even as Star made a flying lunge to catch Raven, the dark magus sprang right over her, landing at the base of the tree and snatching up her cloak before taking off in a dash. For the barest moment, Starfire contemplated bringing herself to a screeching halt and then giving chase, but her less rational, more instinctual mind told her to simply turn about. She did so, causing her to land feet first against the tree branch, letting her already bunched legs straighten and catapult her off of the wooden protrusion and after Raven. The ashen-skinned girl, knowing that she could not out pace her pursuer, went with the next best thing and threw her cape out behind her. The garment flew straight into Starfire's face, quite effectively blinding the poor alien.

Regardless of impaired vision, though, she intended to get Raven, and so simply flew even faster straight forward. In a final desperation move, Raven threw herself onto her back, trying to slip underneath the flying alien, while reaching out with her power to stop herself cold where she fell. Despite the move, Starfire still managed to catch hold of Raven's legs about the ankles. With a wrench, the Tamaranian's added impetus ripped Raven's claws of black energy out of the ground, along with several large chunks of the park lawn and soil themselves. But, at the same time, Raven's telekinetic anchor threw Star's inertial drive completely out of kilter, shifting her straight flight into a spin that dragged the dark magus along with it.

When the alien's actual flight cut out in an attempt to halt the spin, the pair instead went tumbling and bouncing over the ground, end over end in an unbreakable tangle. Eventually, they rolled to a stop, just beneath the boughs of a relatively large tree, and once she could finally see straight again, Raven attempted to extricate herself. But, in moving her legs and bringing her knees up initially to begin getting to her feet, she found her movements obstructed by a soft, yet immovable obstacle. After bringing her hands up and straightening her arms, she saw that she was over Starfire, hands planted on either side of the emerald and lime green eyed girl's head, one knee seated rather firmly and high up between the other girl's legs; a fact that caused Starfire to blush quite darkly as she stared up at Raven; while the other lay on the outside, causing Raven to vaguely straddle Starfire's right leg.

At the realization, Raven's violet eyes went wide and she froze, unable to make any further attempts to remove herself from Star's person. But, at the same time, her resolve to keep from forcing anything on Starfire nagged at the back of her mind, stifling the dark magus' desire to kiss the Tamaranian's soft, slightly-parted lips. The tense moment held for nearly a minute on end, as both girls were unable to escape, but also unwilling to do anything besides escape. Then, finally, it snapped as a scream rang out, a woman's scream, followed by a harsh, uncaring voice.

"Look, lady, just hand over the stupid ring, and you or your boyfriend won't get hurt!" Both super-heroines got to their feet in a flash at the sound, and immediately oriented themselves on the shout's origin point.

Awkwardness superceded by duty, Starfire looked to Raven questioningly, unsure of the other girl's ability and willingness to fight, and the dark magus nodded without hesitation in response.

"I'm tellin' you right now, you've got five more seconds to hand that over, then we're gonna start fucking you up!" Starfire took off, bursting through the trees over the altercation a moment later, finding seven brightly colored and oddly-attired gang members surrounding a young man and woman, menacing them with various weapons.

"Cease and desist your criminal actions this instant, otherwise I will be forced to take severe disciplinary action." Without the others there to do so, Starfire was forced to take on the mantle of verbally abusing the offenders, which she did relatively well, floating in the air over them with her hands surrounded by a brilliant nimbus of bright green energy.

Unsurprisingly, the thugs did not react favorably to Starfire's appearance, the leader, obviously so since he was doing all of the talking, raised a pistol drawn from his belt to the girl.

"Ice this bitch!" He shouted, punctuating the cry with a shot from the small weapon, the Tamaranian nimbly dodging the attack.

Even as the other bangers went to draw their own firearms, blazing bolts of hot plasma sizzled into their midst, downing two where they stood. A storm of small arms fire came in retaliation, forcing Starfire to go on the move, still raining down bolts even as she did so. And, like her shadowy namesake, Raven appeared as if from nowhere in the air over one of the members, delivering a vicious kick that downed the youth instantly. She landed easily beside another, knocking his gun from his hand with a single strike, then blocked his follow up knife swipe by stopping his arm at the wrist with her own, and lastly brought her free hand in to deal a hard blow to the underside of his jaw, snapping his head back with an audible "crack." As the unconscious thug feel before her, though, she found herself faced with another two, pistols already trained on her.

That is, until both were knocked to the ground by solid hits from Starbolts, and Raven smiled faintly, though she wasn't foolish enough to look away from the last remaining member of the gang to acknowledge Star's assistance. Bereft of aid, the leader looked from the slowly advancing dark magus to the Tamaranian girl floating in the sky above him, and simply threw his gun to the ground and ran. After taking a moment to calm herself, Raven tentatively reached into the pool of her collective power, and drew forth just enough to send several of the leather jackets from his downed fellows flying at the leader, quickly knocking him to the ground and immobilizing him with the garments.

That taken care of, Raven turned about to face the pair they had rescued, and immediately found herself embraced tightly by the young woman, a blonde with sparkling blue eyes.

"Oh, thank you, thank you so very much!" She cried happily as she held the dark magus, and the stunned Raven could only nod dumbly in response.

A moment after Starfire landed beside the pair, the young man, a handsome youth with slightly spiked brown hair and charming eyes of the same color, gently detached the woman from Raven, after which the ashen-skinned girl inched behind Starfire, putting her between herself and the two.

"I'm sorry, Miss, my fiancé just gets a little overly affectionate when she's happy." He apologized, gesturing to the woman beside him as he spoke.

"Fiancé?" Starfire asked curiously, tilting her head in that curious manner that she did when her interest was aroused.

"We're promised." He answered, draping an arm over the blonde's shoulder, bringing the golden band on his ring finger into prominence. "You came just in time to save our rings, they're all we brought with us." Starfire smiled widely at the news and fairly hopped in place as a million questions tried to beat their way out of her all at once.

"Glorious, when is the union to take place?"

"Tomorrow night, actually, right in this very park, that's why we were here." The man answered, before he stopped and blinked. "But we're getting ahead of ourselves, we haven't even introduced ourselves yet." He smiled, and gestured easily to himself. "I'm Brendan Reed." Beside him, the blonde smiled as well, and curtsied just a little.

"Sophia Lorraine."

"Starfire."

"Raven." The dark magus said quietly, stepping out from behind Starfire as she did so.

"Well, it's wonderful to meet you both, and now that I have your names, I'd like to invite you both to come to the wedding as guests of honor." Raven gaped at the offer while Starfire fairly quivered with barely contained joy, but before either could give an answer, Sophia looked down at her watch and then grabbed her fiancé's arm.

"We're going to be late to meet my parents!" The youth looked to his wife in shock, and before either of the super-heroines could even blink, the two were already dashing off.

"Don't forget the invitation, tomorrow night at six!" Brendan shouted back, before he and his intended vanished from sight.

Starfire and Raven stood in silence for a few moments, before the Tamaranian fairly exploded with words.

"Oh, this is so wonderful, Raven!" She grabbed the ashen-skinned girl about the shoulders. "It will be so enjoyable to be a part of such a joyous occasion, I cannot wait to decide what I will wear!" Raven winced, and gently put a hand on Starfire's shoulder.

"Starfire, we can't go to that." The crimson-haired girl's face fell, and Raven only appeared more pained by that fact.

"Why, Raven?"

"Because . . ." The dark magus looked into Starfire's emerald on lime eyes, and at the sight of the girl's dejection, she faltered. "Because neither of us really have anything to wear." She finished lamely, trying to pretend as though she'd been planning to say that from the start.

Starfire smiled at hearing that, missing Raven's slight state of distress.

"That is fine, we can go shopping today and purchase something." Raven buried her misgivings and smiled.

"Of course, how could I be so silly?" Starfire nodded.

"I do not know, but I would enjoy leaving now to begin our shopping as soon as possible."

"Let's." And the two left, Raven hoping desperately that her fears were entirely unfounded.

Her foot tapped softly on the ground with considerable rapidity, nervousness bringing forth the unconscious action. Raven sat in a chair inside a small but still glamorous clothing store, a very upscale place with the latest fashions, waiting as patiently as she could for Starfire. The Tamaranian had vanished into the dressing room with a huge collection of clothing some time ago, and had yet to make even a sound to indicate her continued presence within its confines. So, left to her own devices, Raven worried.

What would happen at the wedding, who would be there, and how would they react to the two girls who came to the event together? Yes, it wasn't entirely uncommon for single people, especially people about their age, to bring just a friend along, but that illusion could so easily be destroyed. Starfire could simply mention their dating, or one of the people could recognize them from earlier in the park, or Raven herself could lose control for just a moment and let something slip, or touch Star in an inappropriate place or manner.

It was all just too frightening, a powder keg just waiting to explode, in Raven's mind.

"Raven . . . ?" But, every last thought in the dark magus' pretty little head vanished when Starfire emerged from the dressing room.

To call her "stunning" would have been a vast understatement, particularly when Raven was the observer. She wore what was actually a rather simple dress, nothing more than a shoulder-less, strapped gown, soft lavender in color, spun of a silky fabric in a satin style, the soft lighting in the store causing it to shine and sparkle. The bodice was just short of tightly-fitting on Starfire's form, and from beneath it at the hips fell a loose, straight skirt that hung almost down to the ground, almost covering the dainty slippers of the same color as the dress that came with the outfit. Lastly came the pair of long, pale blue gloves, which reached up just past the alien's mid-bicep, which accented her thin, graceful arms, as well as making her arms only appear long due to their length. The garment itself hugged the curves and contours of Starfire's body seductively, and yet it maintained enough ambiguity in its presentation to remain modest. Overall, the whole outfit gave off a sense of elegance and simplicity, immensely complimentary airs for the crimson-haired girl herself, and Raven was utterly blown away by it.

"How is my appearance, Raven?" Starfire asked shyly, blushing slightly as she looked to the dark magus.

Raven only stared in silence for several moments at first, but finally she blinked and shook her head, trying to clear the odd haze from her mind.

"You . . . you're . . . beautiful, Starfire." The Tamaranian smiled and blushed an even deeper shade of red.

"You are being too charitable . . ." She murmured demurely, bringing Raven almost instantly to her feet.

"No, I'm not." She shook her head, though this time it was almost in shame. "If anything, I'm not being kind enough, I don't have the words to do you justice." Starfire flushed another shade darker, but this was offset by the concern that entered her expression.

"Raven . . . ?" At the quiet, worried question, Raven subsided into her seat, staring into her lap.

"Never mind, Starfire, just believe me when I tell you that you look wonderful."

"Thank you, Raven." Starfire whispered unhappily, though she brightened after a moment. "Perhaps finding your dress will bring you cheer?" Raven looked up to Star, and after a pause managed to put a smile on her face.

"Maybe."

"Then we shall find your dress and make you happy!"

Hours and many visited stores later, Starfire and Raven plodded up to the front of the last store they knew of in the city, still only with one bag in tow.

"I'm sorry about this, Starfire." Raven apologized, though Starfire responded without hesitation.

"It is not your fault, none of the garments we have seen thus far have suited you, and I can understand your wish to have the perfect clothing for this exalted event." The dark magus shook her head.

"But I'm still inconveniencing you for my- . . ." Star smiled warmly, and held up a hand to halt Raven.

"You take too much guilt upon yourself, Raven, and you forget that the point of our dating is to spend time together, is it not?"

"I suppose it is, but- . . ."

"No, no more 'were it not for the fact,' I am enjoying this time with you, Raven, and that is all that matters." The ashen-skinned girl blushed at Starfire's vehement denial of her insinuations, and finally she backed down.

"Well, then I guess we should go in here and hope I can find something." Starfire nodded and followed Raven into the store, an odd place called, "The Golden Dragon," which was apparently an Oriental specialty store.

As soon as the Tamaranian stepped inside the darkened confines of the store, she found herself assaulted by a thousand strange odors, the smells of several different varieties of burning incense, musky odors of ancient, dusty artifacts, the crisp, metallic smell of various types of metal, including hard-forged steel. All of it was a bit much for the alien girl to absorb all at once, but she adjusted after a few moments, and almost immediately became engrossed with the many oddities and curios scattered about the walls, not even noticing that Raven was nowhere to be found by that point.

Briefly, she examined a golden, extremely artistically-rendered incense burner, followed by a wooden carving of a Kuang-Shi, a Chinese Vampire, after which she moved on to a wall covered in rack after rack of exotic weapons.

"Starfire . . . ?" Raven's quiet call came just as Starfire was puzzling over a weapon that amounted to a stick with a crescent-shaped blade on one end, and an extremely heavy bludgeoning weight on the other.

She turned about to face the girl at the nervous query, and quite nearly fell right off of her feet from shock. Raven stood, hands held before her and pawing at one another, in a dress. But this was no ordinary dress, not by any stretch of the imagination. First of all, it was almost two garments in one, the first a feather-light shift of a gossamer, silky fabric, violet in color and thin enough to be seen through for the most part, with a simple, scarlet dress beneath that. Both overlapped their fabric at the bodice where they buttoned in a typical Chinese style, though the overlap lay in opposite directions between the two. The similarity ended there, as the scarlet underdress' high neckline reached all the way up to Raven's mid-neck at the collar, while the violet overdress hung low enough that it would have shown most of the girl's collarbone, had it not been for the opaque underdress.

Whereas the overdress had long, billowy sleeves that extended all the way to her wrists, drawing the eye to her bare hands, the sleeves of the under ended just as the arm started off from the shoulder. The juxtaposition of dissimilar styles continued as the difference in the lengths of the skirts became obvious, with the underskirt falling down to mid-thigh and fitting relatively tightly to the ashen-skinned girl's legs, and the other over falling loosely all the way to Raven's ankles, right over her sandaled feet, and slit up the right side all the way to the underdress. And though the scarlet underdress drew the eye through more vibrant color, the intricate embroidery of the overdress' sheer surface more than made up for that advantage, forming on its shimmering surface images of birds taking to graceful flight, mysterious, bestial shapes hiding in the distance, and shadowy masses that appeared as both large, half-formed images, and tendrils that twisted and wound their way about, particularly on the sleeves.

The dress was at once both showy and yet modest, and the very fact that it was essentially two pieces of clothing, one worn over the other, only made it all the more fitting for the dark magus.

"Starfire . . . ?" Raven asked again, the anxiety in her voice having grown as the alien girl continued to stare at her with wide, almost blank, eyes.

The call broke whatever spell the dress had held over Starfire, and she blinked a few times as she tried to navigate thought-processes through her addled mind. Once the train cars finally connected on the tracks of her brain, though, the Tamaranian lit up with joy and hugged Raven tightly.

"Oh Raven!" She cried, and even as she did so, she found herself unable to help noticing how soft the dress was, much the same as Raven's body underneath it. "It is absolutely perfect for you, this is wonderful!" Raven smiled, her cheeks turning a shade of pink.

"I'm glad you like it, Starfire." The crimson-haired girl nodded enthusiastically.

"I do, it is beautiful, and I cannot wait to see you in it at the wedding!" Before Raven could say even a word in response, Star had released her from the embrace and spun her about to face the check-out counter at the far corner of the store. "Come, we must purchase it!"

"Alright, but can I at least take it off first?"

"Oh, of course, certainly, Raven." Starfire blushed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, allowing Raven to go off back toward the dressing room to remove the garment.

But, even as she did so, the Tamaranian couldn't help notice every little detail about the way it and Raven's body moved as she retreated, an odd feeling slipping through her body . . .

Thus far, the wedding had gone off without a hitch, and had been quite enjoyable to watch. The ceremony itself hadn't been incredibly extravagant, but had still been breathtaking in its own simple manner, particularly when Brendan and Sophia had actually taken their vows, Raven had been forced to literally restrain the emotional Tamaranian beside her from squealing with joy at the event. Everything else had gone by in a blur of enthusiasm, almost too fast for Raven to even notice. And now it was time for the dancing, which presented her with a new, though not exactly unexpected, problem.

"Why should we not dance with the other guests, Raven, no one seems to be concerned with them for doing so now?" Starfire asked curiously as she stood before her seated "date," a large mass of dancing pairs acting as a backdrop frame to her form.

"Because I'm not very good at dancing, and I don't want to embarrass you or myself." Luckily, Raven was vaguely prepared for the questioning, and so did not stumble quite as much as she had previously.

"But, that youth and his friend do not appear to be very good at dancing, and they are not concerned." Starfire stated with the lilt of questioning still in her voice, indicating a boy and a girl off to the side of the crowd who could barely avoid tripping over their own feet, much less each other's.

"They don't care if they look like idiots, I do." Raven responded, sadly aware of the losing battle she was fighting against Starfire's simple logic.

Meanwhile, not too far away, a certain young man in a tuxedo was quietly watching the pair, first as the tall red-head fairly tried to pull the short, pale girl onto the dance floor, and then as she literally tried to do so, grabbing hold of her sheer silk-sleeved arm and dragging her toward it. His eyebrow quirked for a moment, and then his face split in a knowing smile.

"Well, let's see if we can't give them a little helping nudge . . ." He murmured to himself before slipping off through the crowd, receiving congratulatory pats on the back along the whole way.

"Please, Raven, I am sure that no one else will notice your poor dancing ability, and we may not have another opportunity to dance at a wedding for quite some time!" Starfire begged, pulling on the dark magus' arm as she did so in hopes of somehow further motivating the girl by doing so.

"I told you, Starfire, I am not going up to- . . ." Raven broke off her protest as the sound of a finger tapping on a microphone boomed forth from the loudspeakers scattered about the area, just as the music that had been playing cut off.

"Sorry to interrupt the fun, everyone, but I only just realized that I'd forgotten about a last minute addition I made to the ceremony." Both Starfire and Raven looked to the podium where the microphone was situated, and found Brendan standing atop it. "You see, there are two people here; two young ladies, actually; who saved Sophia and I from some thugs who might have postponed this ceremony indefinitely if they hadn't been stopped." Suddenly, a spotlight fell on the two super-heroines, illuminating them for all to see. "So, Starfire and Raven, I'd like you two to have the first _complete_ dance of the night, as the guests of honor at this occasion." Realizing exactly what Brendan meant, the many couples standing about on the dance floor quickly cleared it, leaving it completely open for the two youths.

For a moment, Raven simply sat transfixed, eyes wide and unseeing, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Then, as Starfire gently pulled on her arm once more, Raven snapped out of it and stood, allowing herself to be led by the hand to the center of the floor, where they then stopped and faced one another, the spotlight faithfully following them to keep them constantly in full view. With barely contained terror, Raven glanced about at all the faces and people watching her and her secret love, fearing the emotions she would find in their eyes, the words that they would speak which would damn her chances at a relationship with Starfire straight to the abyss. But, to her astonishment, she perceived not even a hint of malice or disgust in the visages spread out around her. In fact, the very worst she saw was cautious curiosity, and many of the faces in the crowd of onlookers actually wore smiles, and looked as though they would have been clapping, had it not been for the respectful silence that had fallen over the area.

"I do not think anyone cares." Starfire commented, bringing Raven's focus back to the alien girl before her, a warm, just short of "I told you so," smug smile on her face. "So, let us dance." Inhibition gone, Raven stepped right up to Starfire, taking one hand in hers, while her other went to the alien's side, just as Star's did.

And, as they took their first step, the music softly trilled back into life, a slow, low melody that was perfect for the event. It began with more cautious, unsure steps, moving in a three-point pattern, a triangle at the center of the floor. But, as the violin accompaniment swelled into stronger, greater life, followed by a tempo jump in the piano's high playing, their dance grew as well. They watched one another with a vaguely curious gaze, not quiet sure what the other had in mind for the dance itself, but without even realizing it, they moved together. Seamlessly, almost as if they were of one will, they slipped and slid over the length of the dance floor, twirling, fairly flying as they did so. The spotlight could barely keep up with their almost erratic movements, and yet they somehow still moved with perfectly synchronized intent. They smiled at each other, simply _knowing_ by that point, and the dance grew even more elaborate. In a smooth, fluid motion, Starfire lifted Raven into the air, spinning as she hovered just an inch off the ground.

And, from her vantage point, Raven watched as the stars above dancing in twirling circles with one another, as if honoring her wonderful waltz with her own emerald-eyed star. She came back to the ground, first twirling Starfire across from her left to her right, and then having the same done to her by the alien. Her eyes skimmed over the smiling faces of the crowd while uproarious clapping filled her ears, and she knew in her heart of hearts that everything was simply perfect.

The floor was once again occupied by all of the other guests, though this time with Raven and Starfire at their center. The music now played as a mellow, slow tune, which fit well with the small, repetitive movements that made up the new form of dancing the alien and the dark magus were engaging in. Finally willing to break the wordless dialogue she was holding with the other girl as they slowly stepped about, Raven spoke.

"Thank you, for getting me to come to this, Starfire." The Tamaranian smiled in response.

"No acknowledgments are necessary, Raven, it is only right to do what I can to make you happy." Raven shook her head lightly, negating Starfire's modesty.

"No, this is more than that, being here didn't just make me happy, it made me feel . . ." She paused for a moment, unsure of how to convey her earlier feelings in words. "Whole, like I'd found something I'd been missing for my whole life." Gently, she squeezed the crimson-haired girl's hand in hers. "Tonight was perfect, and it would be rude to not thank you for it." The squeeze was returned before Starfire spoke.

"But it is unnecessary, the night was nearly perfect for me as well, and that is repayment enough for recognition to be forgone." Raven blinked, catching the "nearly" in Starfire's statement.

"Why _nearly_ perfect?"

"Well, there was just one detail . . ." While maintaining their dance, Star reached around Raven's head to the bun that her hair had been pulled back and styled into before they left for the wedding, and slipped the pair of anchoring chopsticks out.

Without their support, the bun fell apart, causing most of Raven's violet locks to fall back into their normal style, the remaining dissidents being nudged into place by Star's nimble hand. When she finished, the Tamaranian returned her hand to Raven's side, smiling warmly with just a hint of mirth at the dark magus' still surprised expression.

"You are who you are, Raven, and that is all that you ever need to be." She said quietly, bringing a fierce blush to the ashen-skinned girl's pale cheeks, before she glanced away in embarrassment.

"Thanks, Star, I'll remember that."

"You are most welcome, Raven." The alien girl returned with her typical chipper lilt, and after another moment, Raven faced her again, beet-red blush reduced to a faint, rouge-like tinting of her cheeks.

She attempted to continue dancing after that, and succeeded for a time, but quickly found her head sinking inexorably, until it actually lay against her dance partner's shoulder.

"Tired?" Came the quiet question from the smiling Starfire, and as the dark magus stared up at her sidelong, she nodded, smiling weakly. "Would you like to go back to the tower, then?" Another nod, and Star returned it just the same. "Then we will go home." A smooth shift of her body changed the positioning of both herself and Raven, letting the dark magus lean fully against her.

And, with ease, she headed off from there, both stopping briefly to wave to Brendan and Sophia, and then they left.

"So, do you think they'll make it?" Sophia asked quietly of her newly-gained husband, as the two of them lowered their arms from the air, watching Raven and Starfire's retreating forms.

"Of course, they both look like strong girls." Brendan responded almost immediately, smiling just a little as he recalled the past. "And besides, they remind me a lot of us, just a few years ago." Sophia blinked once, and looked off in the direction the girls had gone, though they were already out of sight by that point.

"I suppose so, the shy one is far too much like you were, when you were still shy, that is." She noted, causing Brendan to give a little "huff" of indignance.

"I'm still shy, just a lot less willing to let life pass me by because of it." Sophia raised one eyebrow.

"Assertiveness and shyness are conflicting attributes, dear." She said dryly, though she couldn't help but smile as she did so.

"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that I still feel as small as a mouse around your father." The words were said in jest, but they placed a certain pall over the conversation, and both fell silent for a time. "How do you think he's going to react to us having those two dance as guests of honor?" Brendan asked finally, breaking the silence.

"He'll deal with it, and if he can't, then _we'll_ deal with it." Sophia answered, almost harshly. "We'll just be thankful that no matter how much trouble he gives us, it will be a whole lot less than those poor girls are going to have." Sadness crept into the woman's voice, empathy causing her to feel for the two super-heroines.

"Hey, don't worry about it, I already said that they'd make it, and as long as they can, there's no way in hell that we shouldn't." Brendan said as he hugged his wife, smiling.

"I love you, Brendan."

"I love you too, Sophia." And they kissed, forgetting their coming troubles for that moment in time.

The sun was shining brightly the next day, and though the wedding was long past over and its trappings packed up and taken away, the area still held a similar event.

"That flame's lookin' a little low, maybe you should fire it up a bit." Beast Boy commented as he hung by a morphed tail just off to the side of Cyborg and his grill, producing a box of lighter fluid from out of nowhere just after doing so.

"BB, I don't think you're supposed to add that stuff to hot coa- . . ." The cybernetically-enhanced youth's words were cut off as the barbeque grill became a roaring tower of flame.

"AIIIEEEEYAAAAA!" The green shape-shifter screamed as he flew away from the grill, hair on fire, and to the background accompaniment of Cyborg's uproarious laughter, he rolled back and forth on the ground while shifting between a number of forms in an attempt to put out the fire.

After a few moments, he found himself surrounded by cold, wet goop, and after shaking himself clean, looked up to find Robin standing over him, fire extinguisher in hand.

"I think you should try playing over by Raven and Star, and stay away from Cyborg and the grill, Beast Boy." He suggested, helping the shorter team member to his feet, and Beast Boy meekly nodded in response, feeling the many singed hairs on his head.

"Yeah, probably, heh."

And, with a sigh and a shake of her head, Raven looked away from the grilling area not too far away and to Starfire beside her.

"You know, I really do wonder whether or not he has a brain in that skull of his, sometimes." She said dryly, and though Starfire couldn't help but giggle as the scene came right back to her mind, she tried to refute Raven.

"It is not so much that Beast Boy lacks intelligence, simply that he is without the wisdom necessary to use what knowledge he has correctly.

"Starfire, he thinks that George Washington fought at the battle of Waterloo." Raven noted with deadpan seriousness, just before the Titan in question popped up right between them.

"Talking about moi, ladies?" He asked smoothly, obviously unaware of the light the two super-heroines had been discussing him in.

Neither was able to hold back their laughter at the unflattering situation Beast Boy had put himself in, and so both fell to their backs and laughed heartily, leaving Beast Boy standing over them and looking very confused. Eventually, Robin returned from suppressing the fire the green changeling had almost started, and stood similarly confused, though he had the sense to ask,

"What's so funny?" After calming themselves and smothering their bouts of laughter to just giggles, the girls looked to one another for a moment, and then Starfire answered.

"I believe that the reason for our mirth would be . . . too 'inside-jokey' to make sense to you, Robin." The boy wonder looked curious for a moment, but then shook his head and dismissed it.

"Well, Cyborg should have the food cooked soon, so we should be starting in not too long." All three, even the still confused Beast Boy nodded, although Raven piped up a moment afterwards.

"If that's the case, then I need to talk to Starfire in private for a moment." The dark magus climbed to her feet as Starfire looked over at her quizzically, and inclined her head toward a place at the edge of the clearing, where the trees were planted considerably closer together than in other parts of the park. "Coming, Starfire?" At the words, the Tamaranian floated to her feet and nodded.

"Of course, lead the way, Raven." And thus the two walked off toward the area, Robin watching them leave with a slightly preoccupied expression.

Just as they were fully out of sight from the others, Raven's hand rather suddenly took Star's, holding it loosely. No words passed between the two, though Starfire did look surprised for a moment, but eventually her expression subsided into a warm smile, and they walked on. They continued to do that for quite some time, simply walking while holding one another's hand, admiring the sights and soothing sounds of the park. Finally, though, Starfire's curiosity got the better of her, and she asked,

"What did you want to talk to me about, Raven?" The dark magus blushed.

"Well, truthfully, nothing." She smiled a little and squeezed Starfire's hand. "Really, I just wanted to get away from the boys so I could hold your hand." And, as Star was about to reply to Raven's declaration, the ashen-skinned girl heard something that turned her blood to ice even as it flowed through her arteries and veins.

"You make me **sick**." The dark magus turned about, along with Starfire, and found a family standing behind her, carrying a number of items which indicated that they had also come to the park to have a picnic.

It was a rather typical family, a mother and father with a son and daughter, the mother and daughter both wearing very plain, almost colorless dresses, while the son wore dress pants and a white shirt. They all looked utterly and completely ordinary. But the father, the father was almost disturbing to look upon, a man so intense that Raven almost feared she would ignite on fire if he continued to glare at her with those hard, clear eyes. After another moment of simply staring, Raven managed to gather the will necessary to force words from her suddenly dry mouth.

"E-excuse me?" She stuttered, so great was her fear of what she knew to be coming.

"I said that you heathens make me physically ill." Starfire looked to the side at Raven, confusion evident in her features, but Raven did not have the time nor heart to acknowledge the look pleading for clarification.

"And w- . . ." She stumbled, and closed her eyes for a moment, squeezing Star's hand almost as hard as she could. "Why, pray tell, are we heathens?" The man snorted indignantly, as if he felt that he shouldn't even need to explain his claim.

"Because homosexuality is a sin, one specifically forbade by God himself, and unless I'm hearing things, I believe that's exactly what you're indulging in." His words were harsh, and barbed with insult and malice, spurring Raven to cry almost immediately,

"Why is it wrong, we're not hurting anyone?!" The man only smiled viciously, obviously expecting just such a response.

"Because God said it was so, whether you're hurting anyone is irrelevant, though I have to contradict you on that point as well, as you're hurting that poor girl by consigning her soul to eternal damnation in the pits of Hell." The fear and anxiety coming off of Raven became almost palpable at that point, particularly after she stole a glance at Starfire beside her and saw the confusion and fright on the Tamaranian's face.

The dark magus truly wanted to cry then, as it seemed the whole crystalline structure of her budding relationship with Starfire, her whole world, was crashing down before her eyes.

"Just the thought of such debauchery, of two men copulating- . . ." And, like a cornered, wounded animal, Raven instinctively struck at the first weakness she sensed from her attacker.

"Yes, I'm sure you find the thought of two men having sex revolting, but I bet you'd cream yourself if you saw us rubbing snatches!" Her agitation became obvious simply in her vulgar language, and both Starfire and the man's wife gasped in shock, the latter of which instantly pulled her children close and covered their ears, horrified at what they had heard.

The man's face flushed red, both in anger and embarrassment, but he quickly defended.

"You are wrong, I'm just as sickened by the thought of you . . ." He paused for a moment, swallowing as the ragged blush on his paled cheeks darkened a shade. "And that girl copulating as I am by the thought of any two men." Raven smirked, finally feeling as though she wasn't at such a disadvantage, but it was weak, as her fear of how what Starfire had already heard would affect the alien was immense.

"Regardless of how you may feel, this is none of your business, and you have no right to come here and try to force your will on us." She said, having decided that the best thing she could do was to get the horrible man to stop talking as soon as possible.

What he said even as she turned about to leave, though, broke her heart in two, and filled her with such deep-set, unquenchable rage that she could only barely contain the writhing, flaming aura of her power that attempted to emerge.

"Rights, hah!" He barked contemptuously. "The very fact that your kind aren't allowed to marry like normal **people** should be proof enough that you aren't _real_ people, that you're less than human, closer to animals than men." Raven didn't even really seem to turn back around to face the man again, she just simply was when she hadn't been less than a second ago.

Her hands were clenched so tightly at her sides that her skin had gone absolutely stark white, and even as she glared at him with such intensity that she fairly burned a hole through him, the depths of her eyes glowed with a dark malevolence. And, just as her eyes began to shift into glowing red slits that heralded terrible comings, the tears that began to run from them washed its bloody corruption away. Without another moment of hesitation, Raven fled with all the speed she could manage, fearing what she would do, what would happen if she stayed any longer.

Unperturbed, the man watched her go, and then gave a mocking laugh as he looked to Starfire, who had turned to watch Raven go with a bewildered, lost expression on her face.

"You two would be better off listening to God's word, this wouldn't be necessary if you did." Finally breaking out of her shocked stupor, Starfire rounded on the father with scorn and disdain written all over her features.

"I do not know who your 'God' person is, but he sounds like a horrible man!" She fairly shouted before flying off after Raven.

The man watched her leave as well, remaining silent and contemplative for a moment, before giving a dismissive "hmph," and gesturing for his wife to help set up the picnic area.

It was nearly ten minutes later that Starfire finally found Raven, huddled in a copse on the far side of the park, curled up in a fetal ball on the ground. She approached slowly, cautiously, fearing the state she might find Raven in. But, even as she floated silently over the ground, the dark magus knew she was there, and lifted her head from the ground to look straight at Star, eyes a little puffy from shedding tears.

"He was . . . a horrible and ignorant man, Raven." She said as she floated to the ground beside the other girl. "Please do not be upset over him." Raven lifted herself up slightly, propping up on one elbow, and looking down at the ground as she spoke.

"Of course, everything he said is a lie, it's not as if any of it is true . . ." Gently, Starfire touched the ashen-skinned girl on the shoulder.

"Raven, are you sound?" She asked, fearing because of Raven's behavior. "Please, I am afraid for you." The dark magus remained silent and unmoving for another moment, and then finally looked up at Star, smiling weakly.

"Of course, just a little shook up, that's all." Starfire looked at her just a little skeptically.

"You are sure?" She only nodded, an innocent expression on her face. "I am fine, Starfire, don't worry."

"Then perhaps we should return to the picnic with the others and try to enjoy the remainder of the day?"

"That's a good idea, let's do that." And, after Raven climbed sluggishly to her feet, they headed off, Starfire hopeful that their encounter would not adversely affect the rest of their day. But Raven . . . her heart still lay in two sundered pieces, and hope . . . hope was far beyond her ability then.

Author's Notes: Before you go off to send me hate mail or give me a nasty review, I'd like to make it known right now that it was not my intention to insinuate that all religious people are like the man portrayed in this chapter. I know quite a few highly religious people who are still quite tolerant of homosexuality. But, at the same time, I know for a fact that people like him do exist, and I think people should realize this fact.


	10. Up and Down the Hill

**Chapter 10: Up and Down the Hill**

The water sparkled like its surface had been scattered with diamonds beneath the brilliant noonday sun, that day. It was a perfect day to be swimming, just hot enough out to make the time spent in the water refreshing, but not so much so that it was truly uncomfortable to be out of the water. Not that it really would have mattered to the two young girls, as they were quite content to remain in the water indefinitely. The two splashed about relatively close to one another, Raven; in her black, one-piece suit that could easily have been mistaken for her leotard, had it not been for the low neckline and lack of sleeves; for the most part happy to just float on the surface of the water and allow the waves to carry her as they would. Starfire; wearing her modest, two-piece that was rendered in purple with silver colored stars of various sizes and designs drawn about its surface; on the other hand, was enjoying herself exploring the watery depths, constantly diving down and gleefully examining and categorizing everything in sight.

Raven idly watched the Tamaranian's excursions, realizing that even if she was as able at exploration as her love, that she still could not join with her in the adventure. Not just due to her jaded skepticism, the ultimate counter to Starfire's wide-eyed wonder, but simply because she felt separate. The man had frightened her, frightened her to her very core, and now it felt as though there was some form of invisible wall between herself and Starfire. She wanted to touch the other girl so badly, to just hold her again even for just a little bit, that it physically caused her pain. But she feared what would happen if she tried, how Starfire would react in light of what had happened yesterday. Honestly, she wished to do so much _more_, but after what had happened, there was a very slim chance any of it would be allowable.

Regardless, her body still desired, despite all her resolve against it, and so she attempted to lose herself in the motion of the waves, to forgot her physical form and know only that which was in her heart and mind. That still hurt too, due to the thing her heart desired more than any other, but in the world of abstract, wishful dreams could soothe that pain.

Starfire loved to play in the water. It was just so simply invigorating to slip into that liquid filled world, a whole other unexplored realm of the earth. Swimming itself was somewhat like flying, except in many ways it was quite different. It required much more effort, that was for certain, but the Tamaranian had never been one to shy away from a little physical exertion. She had been told that it was dangerous, but it did not seem to be so to her, almost all of the animals she had met thus far had been quite nice, very friendly in many cases.

Not only that, but discovering what lay under the "endless" blue of the waters around Titan's Tower was fascinating to her. So very many diverse forms of life; plant, animal, and others; and almost inconceivable formations of terrain. She explored deep crevices to the very maximum depth she could manage, searched through deep caverns, many of which were so incredibly large that Starfire felt like nothing more than an insect, a mite inside of them. It was all so very amazing that it filled the crimson-haired girl with giddy joy, so much so that she returned to the surface in a rush, breaking the surface in a spray.

And, sadly, in her rush, she missed the form skimming only just a little below the surface of the water, bearing down on the area where she was going to surface. And so, when her vision cleared and she found a small speed boat heading straight for a collision course with her, only moments away from impact, she could do little more than scream.

Raven snapped instantly out of her reverie at the scream that had sounded out, Starfire's scream. Unerringly, she looked to Starfire, and, to her utter and complete horror, realized that her love was only seconds away from being struck dead by an on-coming speed boat. Through the sheer force of her overwhelming desire to save Starfire, the raven shadow rose up about her instantly, and then she was floating in the water right before the alien, between her and the boat. Fluidly, Raven summoned the strongest protective barrier she could manage, throwing it up before herself, and then she simply braced herself, praying.

With a sound like thunder, the boat crashed into the dark magus' shield at breakneck speed, and the whole forecastle of the ship fairly shattered. But, at the same time, Raven's protective barrier burst apart, and though what remained of the boat was thrown back and beginning to quickly sink into the ocean and no longer a threat, the sundered pieces were. As soon as she felt her power break, Raven threw her arms out wide to block the largest area possible, and for doing so, she received all the injury. Most of them were superficial, small cuts from shards of fiberglass coupled with a number of embedded splinters, but when a large chunk of the under prow came flying into her outstretched left arm, a severe "CRACK!" announced the breaking of a bone. With a strangled cry, Raven slipped under the surface of the water, the shock of the injury paralyzing her and destroying her ability to keep afloat.

Horrified, Starfire watched Raven slip beneath the waves, and almost immediately she dove down after the ashen-skinned girl, snatching Raven up in her arms and pulling her very close before almost literally rocketing out of the water. She hovered just over the licking ripples and waves as she looked down to Raven, worry strongly written on her features.

"Are you all right, Raven, are you sound?" She asked quickly, fearful for Raven's health.

The dark magus' eyes were clenched tightly shut in pain, but she nodded slightly.

"Fine . . . I'm fine . . ." She whispered through her teeth.

In her elation, Starfire almost hugged Raven, but stopped just short of doing so, realizing the pain it could cause the girl. And, at the thought of causing pain, Starfire's features grew stony, and she briefly looked around, as if searching for something. Suddenly, she glided over to a small bobbing shape in the water, what turned out to be a young man, apparently the pilot of the ship.

"You are uninjured, correct?" Starfire asked before he could cry out happily at the hero's appearance, just a little coldly.

He nodded dumbly, just a little surprised, and she gave her own harsh nod.

"Then you may get yourself to safety, as I have an injured friend to care for." Without another moment of delay, Starfire turned about and flew off toward the tower, cradling Raven in her arms.

Even as she did so, she felt the dark magus shiver, and realized that a cold wind had picked up and was blowing across them, chilling the injured girl and only making her more uncomfortable. Carefully, the alien girl turned about once again, facing her back to the wind as she pulled Raven a little closer, using her own body to shield the other girl. Her skin drew up in goose pimples as its temperature dropped, and Raven suddenly shook her head, denying Starfire's attempt to inconvenience herself to help Raven.

"Why do you do all of these things for me, Raven?" The Tamaranian asked in disbelief, notably refusing to turn herself and put Raven back at the mercy of the freezing wind as she slowly continued her flight to the tower. "Why do you do these things that upset you, that make you uncomfortable, that hurt you, for me?" Starfire referred not just to Raven's saving of her life and subsequent injury, but to the many other things she had realized recently, not limited to her agreement to go to the park, despite knowing that people like **that** man could be there, or to the wedding, despite the same possibility.

Since that time yesterday, Starfire had learned much and it had hurt her deeply to find out about all the hatred that many felt for those who were simply different. It had explained much of Raven's odd behavior; and forgiveness for the lies she had told was a foregone conclusion, considering the circumstances; and caused Star even more grief as she realized exactly how much anxiety Raven had been suffering through since they had begun dating. And, as if to counter Starfire's very thought then, Raven smiled through the pain of her broken arm.

"Love . . . you . . ." She whispered through her agony clenched teeth, still smiling up at the alien girl, even with her eyes tightly closed.

Even despite the pain that tinted the smile, it was still Raven's rare smile, and it warmed Starfire's heart to see it. She remembered all the times she had been graced with that smile, all the time they'd spent playing over the last two weeks, and even all the time they had spent meditating, as it had brought its own unique form of enjoyment. They finally reached the tower at that point, entering into its heated confines with a glad sigh. Able to face forward once again, Starfire turned, and began to make her way up the stairs to the tower, heaving to the floor that housed the infirmary. On the way, her memories of carrying Raven's bleeding, dying form to the same place not long ago were evoked, and a stray thought came into prominence in her mind.

What if Raven were dead, if she had died back then, or had been struck dead by the boat during the accident? The terrible thought triggered a cascading waterfall of other, progressively more disturbing thoughts. She would never be able to talk to Raven again, never play with her, nor spend time with her in any way at all. That was frightening, but it paled in comparison to the next in the line of the relentless assault. She might never have been able to enjoy that wonderful dance that she'd had with Raven, or at the very least never be able to share another with the dark magus. A heart-wrenching thought, to say the least, but the last . . . it was by far the worst. She would never be able to kiss Raven again, as she had on that day, to wake her from her nightmare.

That thought brought Starfire to a pause, even as she was carefully lifting the ashen-skinned girl up onto the examination table in the infirmary itself. It had come from out of nowhere, from the unknown depths of her mind, but the all-consuming horror, the vehement, impassioned cry of "NO!" that seemed to ring forth from her very soul, a hundred times greater than the feelings evoked by any of the other thoughts Starfire had considered. Calmly, she laid Raven atop the table, and then went to the console at the side of the room to activate the auto-care systems. After doing so, she returned to Raven's side and looked to her curiously.

It was true, she wanted to kiss Raven more than anything else in the world then. The thought of losing Raven hurt her, deeply, and, though she had not noticed it before, being with Raven made a soft, warm feeling rise up in her heart. As she stood by the side of the table and watched the machinery do its work, she knew that she loved Raven, as Raven loved her.

The waves rolled gently in from the horizon endlessly, as if pushed in by the sinking sun at the edge of the world. That very object's descent had a beautiful effect on the ocean and sky, bathing both in a burnished gold-like ambience, and it made for quite the scene indeed. A scene that both of the female Teen Titans, seated atop the roof of their Tower, watched with quiet awe, sitting next to one another as they did so. Raven now sported a thin cast on her left forearm; but she seemed more than able to ignore its minor annoyance; simply staring out into the slowly red-tinting sky, a slightly melancholy look on her face. Starfire, beside her, looked considerably happier, and similarly watched the sunset, but with a much more rapt attention. After another few moments, Raven finally asked the question she had been mulling over for more than a day.

"What will we do next, Starfire?" Some of Raven's depression slipped into the question, but this only made Starfire smile, as she knew she could banish those feelings with but a phrase.

"Well, after the events of today, I believe a meal of relaxation would make an appropriate dinner." Her smile gained a mischievous quality, as she tried to see if she could lighten Raven's mood any beforehand.

Raven chuckled, softly, but remained in her same position, gazing out at the sea with her knees pulled up against her chest, sadness obvious in her posture.

"You know what I meant, Star." She responded quietly, though without any real scorn in her voice. "What should we do now, should we stay together, split up, or . . . what?" It was obvious, simply from the tone of her voice, that it hurt Raven to ask such a question.

Without saying anything in response at first, Starfire simply played with her hands, curiously aware that her brain was unwilling to allow her to say the thing she knew Raven wanted to hear. Finally, she managed to push forth some aspect of her true feelings.

"I . . . would like to stay with you, Raven." She looked over at the dark magus as she spoke, hoping what she could not express in words would be read in her eyes. "I am most happy when we are together." Raven's violet eyes lit up at the words, and she turned fully about to face Starfire, smiling.

"That's great, Starfire!" She hugged the alien, though a little awkwardly due to her new cast. "But . . ." She drew away, returning to normal. "The question still isn't quite answered. Where do we go from here?" Starfire did not answer immediately, instead shifting her gaze back to the sea, troubled by the nagging feeling at the back of her mind.

And, off in the far distance, her eyes caught sight of a brilliant, crimson colored bird, though its apparent coloration might have been a trick of the distance and the light cast by the setting sun. Regardless, it made the thoughts connect in her mind, and she suddenly understood what was holding her back. Robin. She lowered her gaze, ashamed.

"Perhaps it would be best if we remained as we are, for right now, my friend." She murmured despondently, and Raven responded in kind with a disappointed sigh.

"Oh . . . okay." Growing nervous at how quickly she was depressing Raven, Starfire stood, laughing with an equal amount of nervousness.

"I shall go make that meal for us now, yes?" Without waiting for an answer, the alien girl made a bee-line for the door to the stairwell.

Watching her go, Raven apprehensively chewed on her lower lip, trying to second guess her decision. But, at the last moment, as Starfire laid her hand on the door handle, she called out,

"Wait, Star." The Tamaranian stopped, and slowly turned about to face Raven, apprehension still evident in her features. "We need to talk about . . . something else." The dark magus gestured for Starfire to come back and the alien girl did so, though she did not sit down beside Raven.

"Yes, Raven?" The ashen-skinned girl looked up at Star for a time in silence, still unsure, but finally lowered her gaze to the surface of the roof and let her shoulders slump.

"Before you decide for certain, there's something you need to know."

"Go on, Raven . . ." Starfire tentatively prodded, worry already growing over what Raven might be planning to reveal.

"I didn't tell you before, but I think that you have a right to know." The dark magus took a deep breath, steeling her resolve, and looked back up at Starfire. "When I was trapped in that nightmare, I met a monster that called herself 'Anbu.' She is me, but she also isn't at the same time, she's somehow a part of me, and she was trying to kill me to take over my body." Starfire gasped at the revelation, and Raven nodded sadly. "She's horribly powerful, she was just about to succeed in her plot when you saved me by waking me up." Then Raven looked away, her voice falling to barely a whisper. "And . . ."

"And?" Starfire asked in almost morbid fascination, too disturbed to simply let Raven trail off.

"She . . . she swore that she'd kill you, Starfire." The crimson-haired alien's eyes went wide at that news, and she blinked a few times in disbelief before speaking.

"That is . . . disturbing to hear, Raven." The dark magus nodded ashamedly.

"I'm sorry, you can go now, I won't try to talk to you anymore- . . ." She began, but Starfire saw almost instantly where the words were going, and stopped Raven outright.

"No, Raven." Raven looked to Starfire's face, surprised by the sheer conviction behind the denial. "This changes nothing." Star touched the other girl's cheek, gently. "Regardless of whatever may be in you, you are still the same Raven I have known since joining the Titans, the Raven I befriended, the Raven I have spent the last few weeks helping and being with, and you are still the same Raven I- . . ." She choked herself off, realizing what she had been about to say.

But, even then, Raven watched her with eyes that begged for her to finish that thought, to speak those coveted words, and with no idea how to truly resolve the situation under her current constraints, she improvised.

"We must calm down, both you and I are getting too upset, Raven." She turned partially, indicating her intent to go back inside. "I will go and prepare the meal for us, it will help to settle our emotions and think clearly." This time, the Tamaranian stood stock still, waiting for an acknowledgment from Raven.

Eventually, Raven nodded uneasily, and watched Starfire go, just as the sun set in the distance, and the sky began to darken.

'It hurts, to have to do this to Raven.' Starfire thought, as she moved swiftly through the halls, having just emerged from the stairwell that ran up to the roof. 'It hurts immensely, which I suppose is another sign of my much greater feelings for her. It feels almost as though I am trying to tear my own heart out, having to put her through even more than I already have, albeit unknowingly until just recently.' Door after door slid by, their appearances and disappearances not even registering in her mind as her focus lay deep inside herself. 'I want to cry, almost, for all the pain it is placing inside of me. It is wrong of me to hurt her like this, needlessly, when I could so easily end it by speaking the truth.' The passing of the door to Raven's room, though, was noted, and Starfire's eyes lazily but intently held their gaze on it as she walked past. 'I love her.' She smiled faintly, dreamily, and continued on. 'I must, to be so greatly affected by her, both positively and negatively.' She came by the main recreation room, and stopped as she heard a voice coming from the video screen set in the partial-panorama view windows.

". . . And later in the week, we'll have some pretty nasty cloud cover moving in, a prelude to a severe drop in temperature and a hard rain storm that will go on well into- . . ." The voice cut off there as Starfire absent-mindedly hit the first button she could find on the remote.

Though, instead of shutting off the screen with the power button, she simply changed the channel. The moving image that formed on the screen then was cruelly coincidental, that of a large mob of people at a political rally, voices impossible to understand due to the large number of people saying many different things all at once. But, the signs they held up made their purpose perfectly clear, signs that read, "Queers Will Burn In Hell," and other similar messages.

'She must have been so incredibly afraid of her feelings for me, living on a world like this.' She continued mentally, just barely restraining her overpowering desire to throw the remote right through the screen.

After a brief moment of focus, she hit the "power" button, shutting off the television, and then left the room.

'She deserves nothing less than the utmost of love and devotion for what she has gone through, most of it, in one way or another, for me. I want nothing more than to take her in my arms and promise that I will never let her go.' In the lobby of the tower, with the huge, "T" shaped doorway, Starfire looked up toward the ceiling sadly. 'But I cannot. I cannot tell her those things, cannot give her what she wants so very much, cannot end her suffering.' She stood before the hard, steel-cast door to a room, Robin's room. 'We never said the words, but both Robin and I understood that we were in love. Not much came of it, because of how little time we had to spend together, but it still existed between us.' She stumbled clumsily down the long stairwell to the basement of the tower, coming to a stop at the bottom with her back against one of the supporting girders after tripping on the final step and falling up against it. 'But my feelings for him . . . they no long even feel like the love of spouses, they feel more like familial love, like my feelings for Blackfire, but stronger, and less restrained. I no longer love him in the way that I did, that I love Raven now.' The cold, brisk wind blowing across the rooftop of Titan's Tower stung the skin of Starfire's cheek, and made her eyes water as she stared out into it.

She was alone, as Raven had left the rooftop some time ago.

'Until Robin knows of my change in heart, until I am no longer bound, I should not, cannot tell Raven of my feelings for her. Doing so could bring about catastrophic consequences and destroy them both.' The weight room, filled with its various and numerous implements of physical training and exercise, would have been a wonderful place for Starfire to "work out" her feelings, if they were those of frustration and anger, rather than helplessness and fear, that is. 'Even though I do not love Robin in the same way, that does not change the fact that I do not wish to hurt him. He deserves better than what I must give him, and thus I have already wronged him, and to do so even further by making our parting painful would be inexcusable.' In the bathroom, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, the deep lines of worry on her forehead, the maelstrom of distraught, confused emotion whirling in her expressive eyes, all of it. 'I have not even the slightest conception of how to do so, meaning that there is only one possible solution. I must ask Raven for help in doing so.' She stood before the door to Raven's quarters once again. 'But I fear that Raven will not react well to that, to the subject of Robin.' She moved down the halls. 'I cannot be with Raven until I have broken with Robin, and yet I cannot break with Robin as long as I am not with Raven.' Inside her own room, Starfire stood over her bed.

"I . . . I do not know . . . what it is that I should do . . ." The alien girl whispered, her voice choked with emotion.

And then she collapsed into her bed and fell into a troubled sleep moments later, sleeping alone for the first night in weeks.

Starfire stood in the doorway to Raven's room, the dark magus standing at the foot of her bed, looking at the alien. The windows to the room were awash with sheets of freezing rain, as it poured down on the tower from the thick, black storm clouds that completely blotted out the sky. The pitch black state of the room was not just the product of the clouds, though, as the sun had fallen below the horizon an hour ago. Both looked nervous, a little upset, and a little ashamed, neither fully able to look at the other as they stood in relative silence, with only the constant sound of the rain striking the bay windows keeping the room from feeling deathly still. Finally, as thunder roared outside the window and cast the room in a stark light, Raven spoke.

"Starfire, what's wrong?" Star blinked, and looked to Raven.

"What do you mean, Raven?"

"You've been acting strange for almost a week, we haven't been doing as much together, haven't talked as much, and . . ." She hesitated, looking away slightly as her cheeks flushed a soft pink color. "It's been lonely, sleeping without you . . ." Starfire looked straight down to the floor.

"I do not know what- . . ."

"Please, Starfire." The strong interjection broke the alien girl's words, and she couldn't help but look back up at the dark magus. "I'm worried, please just talk to me." She pleaded, and gestured weakly to the bed beside her as she took a seat upon it.

Tentatively, after agonizing mentally over the proper thing to do, Starfire walked toward Raven. Step after step, she drew closer, until she was only a little over a foot away, and then lightning flashed. In that instant, the Tamaranian's step fell awry, and she slipped. As soon as the monochrome lighting of the strike faded, Starfire found herself lain atop Raven, their difference in height off-set by the distance from which she had fallen, so that her head lay against Raven's upper chest. At first, nothing at all happened, everything was frozen, as if the lightning strike had been a camera flash, and the whole scene was nothing but the unchanging snapshot it produced. Both looked sightlessly out, Raven at the top of Starfire's crimson-haired head, and Starfire down into Raven's black leotard.

Finally, as she acutely felt every last touch of Starfire's body against her own; the hand lain across her hip, the chin just barely pressing into the cleavage of her breasts, the hips and legs straddling her leg, even that of her own hand on the alien girl's back; Raven could take it no longer. Inside of her, that last thread of resistance, of restraint, snapped, and she softly leaned down to lay a kiss on the top of Starfire's head, catching the faintest scent of cinnamon as she did so. The dark magus' free hand; as her cast bound arm lay uselessly off to the side on the bed; moved to palm at Star's shoulder blade as all conscious thought in the alien's mind was lost in a raging twister of confusion, pleasure, and weakly battling sensibilities. And, even as Raven nudged Starfire's head up with her chin before placing a kiss on her forehead, that free hand slid down the side of Star's chest, tracing the lines of the girl's ribs beneath her skin until it came to play at the other girl's breast.

With the command center incapacitated by conflicting emotions and desires, Star's body was free to act of its own volition, and to Raven's unconscious joy and pleasure, she felt Starfire's hand slide up from its place on her hips and onto her stomach, tickling her even as the hand left trails of comforting warmth wherever it touched. In the heat of the moment, Raven managed to thrust impressively downward with her bound arm, back, and her left leg, physically flipping herself and Starfire over on the bed, placing herself on top of the other girl. In her newfound position, Raven's hand went at Star's breast more fully, cupping and massaging, though the action weakened a little as the alien girl's hand climbed higher upon Raven's torso, and as Starfire's other hand felt at her spine. But, as Raven's knee slid up to press between Starfire's legs and run at the crimson-haired girl's crotch, a single thought entered the Tamaranian's mind.

'I should not be doing this, I cannot yet give myself to Raven like this.' And so, with a heavy heart, she pulled her hands away from Raven's body, and quietly whispered.

"Raven, stop, please" For a moment, Raven disbelieved what she'd heard, but when she realized that Starfire was no longer touching her, she pulled away similarly.

Except that she went even further, completely removing herself from Starfire's person, and then seated herself back on the bed, distanced from the other girl as she awkwardly tried to suppress her desire.

"Wha-what's wrong, Starfire?" Raven said, through a dry, worried throat.

What little resolve that Starfire had was not enough to keep her thoughts straight, her emotions in check, as she watched Raven grow nervous and upset once again, and as her own body hungered to return to their previous intimacy. Everything blocked up in the Tamaranian's mind, jumbling terribly, and it all poured out in a mess.

"Rave . . . ask . . . do . . . love . . . I don't . . . Robin- . . ." The instant that Robin's name slipped from Starfire's lips, Raven felt as though she had been struck, and her expression showed it completely. "No, Raven!" Starfire cried, her face twisting in torment, but it was already too late, and as lighting crashed once again outside, the impenetrable darkness of the raven shadow rose up through the pure white brilliance of the flash, and Raven was gone.

Starfire had sat alone in Raven's room for quite some time after the dark magus' escape. She had hoped and she had prayed that things would not go as she had expected, as they had. But they did, and she felt betrayed, upset that Raven had actually had so little trust in her that she had fled at simply the mention of Robin's name. She wanted to go after Raven, but at the same time she feared that she could only make things worse, despite her wishes otherwise. And so, trapped between her wish to go after and her doubt in her ability to make things right again, Starfire simply wandered through the tower, "looking" for Raven, even though she knew the other girl was not there.

What she found while doing so, though, was Robin, just beginning to make a meal in the kitchen.

"Hey Starfire, where's Raven?" He called as he noticed the Tamaranian floating despondently in the entryway.

"She is . . . gone." Starfire replied, before slipping from the air and onto her feet, as if she had no more happiness left to fuel her flight.

"Where'd she go without you, I thought you were supposed to be taking care of her?" He asked curiously, putting the various food stuffs that he'd had out back in the fridge, realizing that something was off.

Starfire did not answer his question, instead asking,

"Where are Beast Boy and Cyborg?"

"They're having a night out on the town to celebrate our saving the city again." Robin answered as he moved out from behind the counter and walked over to Star. "What's wrong, Starfire, what happened?" He queried, immediately when he came to her, placing his hands gently on her shoulders.

"You would not understand . . ." She murmured as she weakly looked away from him.

Not to be so easily deterred, Robin moved so that he could look the alien girl in the eyes, and went at it directly.

"Is something going on between you and Raven?" He asked bluntly, and when Starfire's eyes went wide in surprise, his suspicions of the last few weeks were confirmed.

After another moment of disbelief and silence, Starfire slumped, her posture becoming even more dejected, and she nodded shamefully.

"Yes, there is." Robin nodded, accepting the information, and angled Starfire toward the seats at the kitchen counter.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Starfire looked back at Robin sadly.

"It is a long tale."

"I don't have anything better to do." He retorted easily, and with no will left to fight, Starfire allowed herself to be lead over to a seat at the counter. "Just start from the beginning, I can listen as long as it takes." The boy wonder said as he moved to the opposite side of the counter, expecting that Starfire would be unsure of how to begin, and therefore preempting her.

With a heavy sigh, the Tamaranian set her hands on the counter. She told him, quite literally, everything, from all the things Raven had told her of before her coma, to the details of it, including Anbu, after a struggle between her better judgment and her heart.

"It occurred because Raven's other half, an evil entity that calls itself 'Anbu' was attempting to take over control of Raven's body. Raven told me that it was extremely powerful, something Raven was unable to defeat, and . . ."

"And?"

"And, the creature has sworn to Raven that it will kill me." Robin's face went stony at the words.

"I see." Knowing that it was her fault that Robin had the damning information that he did, Starfire did her best to protect Raven's place on the team.

"Please, it is not Raven's fault that she has this creature inside of her, please do not punish her for it."

"Starfire, it said it was going to kill you, and according to Raven, she can't stop it from carrying out that threat, and that makes her a danger to the team." Starfire shook her head in negation vehemently, making her hair fly and flash in the air behind her head, as she refused to believe what Robin was saying.

"Raven has proved many times that she had much more power than even she knows, and . . ." She looked away just a little. "I do not believe that she would allow me to be hurt, not as long as she was alive." Robin, against the press of the purely logical part of his brain, omitted saying that Raven would most likely be dead if Anbu attacked her.

"That doesn't change the fact that she's a time bomb just waiting to go off an- . . ." Robin didn't finish, as Starfire cut him off, face utterly serious.

"I will take full responsibility for Raven's behavior from now on, and I will make sure that Anbu does not become a problem for the team." Robin looked at Starfire severely, but when the alien girl met his gaze with one of limitless determination, he relented.

"Fine, she can stay on the team." After a moment of silence and uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm on Starfire's part, he added. "Perhaps you should continue?"

Starfire also told of the time after the nightmare trap, of her agreement to date Raven to see if she could feel for Raven as she did for her, their time in the park, from energetic play to the wedding and the dance, and even of the man who had come to them with hatred, condemnation, and brimstone. Tentatively, she included the last week as well, her realization of her love for Raven and all. Robin looked hurt when she told him of that, but seemed rather unsurprised that it had gone that far, and so she pushed on to the end, to the real point of the whole conversation.

"Tonight, Raven brought me to her room after finally losing patience with my silence and gloom as we watched the rain from the window. She asked me what was wrong, but I could not tell her, and so she gestured for me to sit beside her on the bed, so we could work things out. I came toward her, and like a Cerainian Lacqdor Grutch, I was startled at a lightning flash and tripped over my own feet. I fell on Raven, and we both froze, due to the very compromising position into which we had fallen. I felt her kiss the top of my head, and her hand touched my back, before everything began to move once again, including my own body . . ." She blushed fiercely in embarrassment, and just a little bit in remembered pleasure. "I enjoyed it, what we did, but I also knew what it really was and I . . . I could not let it happen yet!" Her voice choked in her throat, knowing the mistake she had made and the pain it had caused Raven, all because of her foolish beliefs and wrong choices. "So . . . I stopped her . . . and tried . . . tried to tell her . . . to ask her . . . but- . . ." Robin spoke then for the first time in quite awhile, cutting Starfire off and finishing the thought for her.

"But she ran away at the mention of my name." The Tamaranian nodded weakly, tears falling from her eyes.

"Yes . . . she did." Carefully, Robin came around the counter, and with incredible gentility for someone who fought as fiercely as he did, wiped the tears from Starfire's eyes with a handkerchief.

"Don't blame her for that, she had an immense amount on her mind, not least of which being you finding out that homosexuality is a very hated thing on this planet, and your distancing yourself from her these last few days didn't help matters." He told her as he did so, speaking in a very soft, soothing tone. "And before you start coming down on yourself, you should realize that you made a mistake, and everyone is allowed to make them." He pulled the cloth away from her eyes and gestured to himself. "I made a mistake and became too obsessed with Slade and nearly lost you and everyone else because of it, but I didn't, you all forgave me, and I'm sure that she'll forgive you too." Starfire remained unsure, confused.

"But, what about you, Robin?" He smiled good-naturedly in response.

"I think I can survive being a surrogate brother to you, and besides, it's not as though you only love once." Without another word, Starfire hugged Robin, tightly, gratefully, and lovingly.

He returned it and let the world remain as that for a time, before speaking again.

"You should go and really look for her now, I think she probably needs you more now than ever before." The alien girl released him, and nodded, finally smiling again.

"Yes, I believe that she does." After one more momentary embrace, Starfire flew from the room, off in search of Raven, while Robin watched her go.

He was smiling, happy for the girl, but the few tears stains on the floor beneath him said otherwise.

"Why do I always have to be such a good guy?"

The half-rain, half-hail that was coming down in torrent over the canyons not far from the city hurt immensely. It ripped at Raven's skin, sending endless jabs of freezing agony throughout the whole of her body. Of course, the physical pain and suffering she was feeling then was nothing compared to the emotional or magical counterparts to it that she was also enduring. Inside of her body, her power surged and ebbed, like an endless series of waves coming at a wall, crashing against it over and over with ever greater force, building and building until they would eventually break it down and explode outward. The very fabric of her being was slowly coming apart at the seams, and the supernatural agony of such an occurrence was indescribable. All around her, objects exploded into nothing, into non-existence, a cruel parody of what would soon happen to her if things continued as they were.

But, by far, the worst pain was the emotional one, the feeling of her heart tearing itself to shreds in her chest, as she had been so sure that she had Starfire's love, and then had watched even the possibility of it slip away. And the taunting, victorious voice in her head did not help things either.

'You know, she did actually love you, she just couldn't reconcile her feelings for you until she'd broken up with Robin. Now that you've run away and proved your distrust of her, though, I don't think she feels quite the same for you.' The words sent another pang through Raven's chest, another dagger wound in addition to the hundreds of others she already felt.

Nearby her, a large boulder shattered from her residual power, though it's sheer size kept it from being completely annihilated, and so she instead found herself peppered with shards of stone. The pain caused her to stumble, and the rain and ice covered ground proved too slick for her to maintain her balance on, causing her to go crashing into it in a heap.

'Just give up already, you've lost everything and it's all your own fault.' A snicker echoing through the depths of Raven's mind only managed to cause her further pain. 'I mean, really, _I_ actually want to kill you now just to put you out of your misery.' Unsteadily, Raven climbed back to her feet by clinging to a nearby rock face, one which luckily didn't explode as she was doing so, and then stumbled further along the twisting path through the canyon. 'You know, she's probably boning him right now, to get back at you for betraying her feelings.' The snide comment enveloped the whole of Raven's emotional turmoil in a conflagration of rage, and with a growl she spun about and instinctively struck out behind her, smashing her fist into a boulder and utterly obliterating it due to the out pouring of her emotion generated power.

She stumbled back, clutching her still balled fist against her chest as it sluggishly began to weep blood from the lacerations she'd ripped in its skin. 'Tsk tsk, Raven dear, you know that I'm not running around out there _yet_. If you want to hit me, you're going to have to come in here and do it.' The dark magus shook her head, and continued onward aimlessly, not even really sure of where she was going to, or even where she wanted to go to, she just knew that she had to keep moving, even through all the pain she was feeling, forcing her legs to take each step without stopping. 'Or perhaps you're too scared to fight me, now that you don't have your little Princess Charming to come save you from me.' Anbu laughed within Raven's mind, and the girl couldn't help but clutch at her head as the sound reverberated through it agonizingly, only adding to the already inhuman level of pain she was being forced to withstand.

And, without even realizing it, Raven backed right off of a cliff edge, simply slipping another step away and finding nothing but air beneath her foot. And, as she fell, she found an odd sort of peace in the knowledge that she was about to die. She knew, for one reason or another, that the fall was more than long enough to kill her, even without the jagged rocks littered about the base of the cliff. And so she let it all go, all of the pain in her body simply slipping away with the acceptance of her demise. And, with that, all that was left was the waiting, in which Raven's mind wandered. How would it feel, it wondered, when she finally hit those rocks below? How painful would it be when their tips ripped into her back, tore apart her spine, and then punched straight through her stomach or chest? Would it even hurt at all, or would her spine be destroyed before the pain signals could reach her brain? And, if it did hurt, would she even have the time to scream before she was dead?

Even as her thoughts grew so morbid, they rather suddenly shifted focus, as she wondered what it would be like to be held in Starfire's arms just one more time. She imagined herself being cradled against her love's warm, yielding chest once again, with the Tamaranian's silky soft hair falling all around her, tickling her cheek and intertwining with hers as they lay in each other's arms. And, her mind continued, what would it be like to kiss Starfire just one last time, to feel Star's velvety lips sliding over her own, pressing against hers as . . .

It was at that moment that Raven realized that she was not imagining those last feelings, that they were indeed what she was actually feeling, Starfire's comforting arms wrapped around her, and the Tamaranian's lips against hers in a kiss. She opened her eyes, and there was her love before her, beautiful even as her hair lay plastered against her head by the rain. Starfire pulled away and out of the kiss, and smiled warmly down at Raven.

"I love you, Raven." Audibly, the dark magus gasped, having been expecting to never hear those treasured words for as long as she would live.

Finally, after simply staring at Starfire in silence for a time, she smiled and responded in kind.

"I love you too, Starfire."She hugged the alien girl tightly, and she in turn embraced Raven just as tightly.

"I wanted to tell you sooner, but I could not, and I am sorry for the pain that you had to suffer through because of it." Raven shook her head, negating Starfire's apology.

"No, it's alright, Star, I understand." Pulling back just a little, so that she could again look Raven in the eyes, Starfire smiled widely.

"Yes, everything is all right now, Raven, because we can be together . . ."

"Evermore." Raven replied, in a breathless whisper.

And they kissed once again, a kiss so powerful, so loving, and so utterly moving, that the rains and winds themselves fell still in its honor, letting the rising sun finally shine upon the canyon, and the two girls floating in it, once again.

Author's Notes: Alright, for you guys here, this is the end of the story, since the rules prohibit me from posting the Epilogue. Ultimately, it isn't truly necessary to read it, but for those of you who don't really mind reading hentai content, you can find the copy with it over on MediaMiner. There will also be a sequel to this, entitled "The Final Dance of the Fallen Dove," but I'm probably going to take my time on that a bit more, so please don't expect it to show up immediately.

Next, I'd like to thank David Shaw, my lovely little Beta Reading machine, for letting me spend hours bouncing ideas off of him, proof-reading all of the chapters initially, and then spending two grueling days editing the whole thing to get rid of all my stupid little errors. I do believe that the story would not be as good as it is without his help.

And lastly, for any of you guys out there who have been holding out on your reviews because the story wasn't done yet, please, let them be free to come and hug me in their warm, loving arms. :)


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